hot battery charger

flintcreek

I have a 84 electric club car. The battery charger has started to get VERY hot. The plugs are hot and the outside case is hot to the touch, and thisis after only 1-2 hours of charging. The local golf cart repairman said that we burned up the charger and needed 2 new batteries. $700 (a used charger, 2 batteries and labor) later, we still have the same problem. We have checked all of the wiring as per your wiring diagram, check water levels in batteries and checked that all battery wires are tight. Any ideas? We hate to put a lot more money into this - but it does have a custom paint job for our campground - so we also do not want to part with it too easily. Thanks for any help or suggestions.

BGW

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phasetim

You have a new charger now? If so your problem has to be limited to the receptacle, batteries or wiring issues. That is assuming the charger itself is good since its new.

shadowman

i would put a new set of cables on as you can have one thats bad under the insulation where you can,t see it........also check your batteries with a hydrometer..........when the parts get hot that your talking about its mostly dirty connections or bad wiring somewhere........get inb there and clean the charge receptical on cart and plug end and change cables.........make sure you disconnect main battery cables before cleaning anything............how old are the batts? and how long before charger shuts off?.........................

islandfever

I had this problem and solved it by changing the cables and connectors. Good luck

flintcreek

We have discovered a new situation. When the cahrger is on, now two other batteries are boiling. We are assuming that now these batteries are bad also. Do we need to replace the last four or just the two more. All six batteries were new 1 1/5 years ago. Two were replaced last week. Shouldn't these batteries last longer? Thanks,

shadowman

what brand of batteries? have you checked each cell in each battery with a hydrometer...........yes batts. should last longer than 18 months with proper maintence but what i find is most people put a set of medium quaility batteries and forget about them and in that case a year or 2 at best...........i can,t tell you how many bad sets of sams club and sears batteries i have seen in the past 6 weeks that were bad every set under 2 years old.........battery maintence is so very critical and most people just over look it along with the cables......if you have 4 of them that are still good at 18 months i would buy 2 more and than start yourself a bi-monthly maintence program........20 minutes 2 times a month and you,ll notice lots of improvement..................................

flintcreek

What do you suggest for a battery maintenance?
Thanks

shadowman

check water level every 2 weeks, add distilled water if needed and only to 1/8 inch or so over lead plates in battery, grab and tug each cable to make sure they are tight.........get a wrench and tape the whole thing up except the end your gonna use so you don,t touch anything else and arch soimething.........give each nut a good tug for tightness.............make sure all terminals and cable ends are clean..............buy yourself a cheap voltage meter its a must have if your gonna work on an elec cart...............a wire brush with woodend or plastic handle for cleaning and a rool of duct tape so when you do have to take a cable off say one end you can tape that end up and not worry what it might touch.........thats all very basic stuff........you can buy a can of spray battery protector but if you maintain them every 2 weeks you won,t need it................the only other thing i would suggest if your doing your own work is buy the service manual for your cart beleive me its worth every penny and its the best money you,ll ever spend on it...............................

flintcreek

Thanks,
I will try all of that.

phasetim

batteries are best changed in sets