Need help identifying wire on battery

harleyman1340

I recently purchased a 2011 EZGO Sport 2+2 and in the process of replacing batteries. This is a 48v cart that comes from the factory with head light/tail lights and horn. While I was in the process of removing the cables there was a green wire on the positive terminal of the middle battery on the row closest to the back of the cart. This looks like it is a part of the original wiring harness. The terminal broke off as I was removing the wire from the post, so I'll have to put a new terminal on it. Since this if part of the original harness I have no idea if I have enough slack just to put a new terminal or have to splice additional wire onto it. Does anybody have any idea what this wire is for. With my limited knowledge of electric golf carts I have no idea if this is part of a 8 volt assessory (scratching my head on that one), or is part of the total 48volt system. It's part of a group of wires that lead from the fuse block to the front of the cart. The best I can tell the green wire is much larger than the other wires on the fuse block, it has a push on spade at the end closest to the fuse block but it not connected to anything.
To summerize my question. I have a green wire hooked up to the positive terminal on the middle battery of the row of batteries closest to the back. The other end looks like it terminates at the fuse block, but is not hooked up. This is part of the factory wiring harness and I'm trying to figure out what this green wire is.

BGW

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marianol

That Green Wire that comes form the middle of the pack is the 12V tap for the lights and horn.
Mine is a 2+2 36V so it may be a bit different since yours is 48V.

The Tap in mine was on the second to last battery of the pack effectively getting 12 volts between the pack Negative and that Green Tap, you can see it in the pic below circled in red.

Check the Stickies at the top for the wiring diagrams of your model and you will see. http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/elect...g-manuals.html From there get the 28646.pdf and check section N Page 174.

FYI check my earlier post JohnnieB helped me out to get rid of that since the 2 batteries that were set for the 12v tap were actually pretty low in volts messing up with my whole pack voltage. I got rid of that and installed a 12v accessory battery where I run the lights, horn and stereo.

http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/elect...n-replace.html

Attached Images

IMAG0258-12V.jpg (86.4 KB, 0 views)

harleyman1340

Marianol, Thanks for the feedback. You've confirmed my suspicisions, since I have a 48v setup this was blowing my mind. My cart looks like it came with a 48 to 12 volt converter so I'm thinking this wire was part of a standard wiring harness (I don't guess they wanted to reinvent the wheel) and the end that goes too the fuse block was the power for the fuse block. When it got to that part of the assembly line the workers just wired it to the battery like every other cart they've wired. Unless someone can give me a reason to hook it back up to the battery I'm not going to hook it back up. I guess I could check for continuity to help make a decision.

marianol

First thing I did to troubleshoot my battery issues was to take that thing off. The Cart drive system only uses the full pack. And uses only the thinker cables (6 or bigger AWG)

So taking that off the worst it can happen is that you have no lights :)

harleyman1340

Marianol, I don't think I answered your battery question in your first response. I'm replacing all the batteries. First of all I hate batteries since I don't understand them, heck I can't believe I bought an electric cart but I liked this cart. When I bought the cart the original owner said he replaced the batteries in 2013, so I asked him why, he stated his grandson had dropped a wrench on them and shorted out the batteries, he talked how well he took care of batteries, he had put a battery life saver on them yada, yada yada. I decided to go ahead and buy it. Got it home and first time I hooked it up to charger the batteries boiled over, the next day I looked and thought maybe he had put to much water in so I took some water out, still had boiling over problems, got volt meter out and one battery was reading about .10 volt lower than others. Been on this site for about 2 weeks reading up on batteries. Finaly found date stamp on batteries and the date code was March 2011 not 2013 like I was expecting. Put a full charge on it 3 days ago and haven't used it, today I'm at 75% SOC, so I said screw it, I'm putting all new batteries in. I'm sure I'll have to clean and repaint the battery box when I get batteries out (waiting on a carry strap right now). Hopefully with new batteries I won't have boiling issues, which will keep me from staining my garage floor and eating up my battery box.

JohnnieB

The bubbling the batteries do while charging isn't boiling (hot), it is gassing. Electrolysis occurs during charging and water in the electrolyte converts into hydrogen and oxygen gases, which bubble up to the surface. This is one of the reasons why water has to be added to the batteries periodically, the other reason is evaporation.

Water (use distilled water only) should only be added to fully charged batteries. (If the plates are exposed, only add enough water to cover plates before charging and then top off to the correct level after they are charged)
The electrolyte expands in volume when the battery is charged, so if a partially discharged battery is filled to the normal fill level, it will over flow as the battery charges.

When you get your new batteries, be sure to charge them prior to the first use, even if the vendor says they are fully charged.

Here is a link to some battery information: http://www.cartsunlimited.net/batter...o---links.html

Read all three tutorials.

harleyman1340

Thanks JohnnieB, I've been researching batteries on this site to get the basics down. I kmow just enough to be dangerous. My cart has a battery life saver desulfator, I don't know if it's snake oil or not, but I'm not going to hook it up on these new batteries because from what I'm reading my charger (powerwise eq) will be the weak link in my system. If I had a DPI with float charge I would hook the battery life saver up.

Volt_Ampere

If your batteries are 5 years old I think you are doing the best thing replacing them. Clean up your battery tray at the same time. Never overfill the batteries. You should never fill them before charging. Always fill them after charging. Only exception to that would be if any plates are exposed. In that case only add enough distilled H20 to just cover the plates. Overfilling is the primary reason that battery trays get rotted by leaking acid.

JohnnieB

Crash Test Dummy has done some testing with the BLS system (pictured below) and has gotten good results. Hopefully he will chime in.

Personally, I'd connect the BLS up to the existing batteries and the new ones when you get them.

The PW-QE charger is fine while it lasts, but they do have some reliability issues. What is the model number of the PW-QE you have?

Attached Images

BLS 48V.jpg (112.9 KB, 0 views)

harleyman1340

9JohnnieB, the BLS you have pictured is the N model which will cut off when the battery pack reaches a certain level, I have the B model and it will not cut off so it will deplete a battery pack if left unattended.
My PW-EQ is model number 917-4810
When I decided to buy batteries earlier in the week the seller stocked US and would have to get Trojans from the supplier. After reading about PW's not fully charging US batteries I told him to get me the Trojans ($75 more for 6 Trojans). They were supposed to be in yesterday, so after I got my battery strap in the mail, I loaded my old batteries up and called the seller up. He said the Trojans came in but they had a k5 date code (November 2015) and he sent them back. Since I was ready to finish this project I went ahead and bought his US batteries. I hooked the batteries up and put the charger on, my battery pack is reading 59.8v in the absorb mode. US battery spec sheet say's absorb charging s/b 2.45+/-.05 vpc which I calculate to be 57.6volts to 60 volts so I see no reason my PW will not give this pack a full charge (agree or disagree)
PS For anyone new to electric carts a battery strap is a life saver.