Freedom RXV motor problems

williet79

Whats up everyone. I am looking at an EZ-GO Freedom RXV golf cart. The cart is not mine. It is my boss's friend who became sick and needs to sell it. At the moment, the cart locked up. I performed both procedures to switch it into tow mode (by switch and by swapping wiring harness') and neither unlocked the electric parking brake. i have confirmed that all batteries have good connections and fully charged (it is a 4 battery, 48V system). I have confirmed that the solenoid functions properly. Next thing i did was disassemble the controller (I suspect i have the Danaher controller with the aluminum cover over the resistor) and didn't see anything particularly troubling as far as corrosion or burnt terminals/wiring/components. I did notice that all of the lugs that the motor cables terminate at were loose internally. i tightened them up as needed. However, it was still locked up. Next i removed the electric brake off the back of the motor and then i could finally push the cart manually. That tells me that my axle isn't physically locked up. I then jacked the cart up for safety purposes but still couldn't get the motor to actuate. When i flip the key to on, i can hear things clicking in and a slight humming noise. When i flip key to reverse, i do notice the wheels while shock themselves a bit. When i press the accelerator i get nothing in either direction. What do ya'll think would be the next logical step???

Thanks in advance!

BGW

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gornoman

Replace the motor brake.

williet79

Considering it wouldn't budge at all until i physically removed the brake assembly, I agree that something must be amiss with it. Still, with the brake off now and nothing to inhibit proper motor operation, i still get no motor movement when i depress the accelerator pedal in either forward or reverse. Thoughts?

cgtech

The Rxv won't run with the brake removed. The shock was the motor trying to twist the brake to test it. If it can twist, brake test fails. Therefore, no brake installed on motor = brake test fail.

kernal

This was posted by one of the tech's awhile ago:

The RXV golf carts are some of the most sophisticated carts in existence. One of the things that many people don't know about with the RXV is that they have what is called a "power-up sequence." During this sequence a number of checks are made, and if any of them fail the vehicle will not run.

Here is the list of things the RXV self-checks for:

Electric brake - it will attempt to rock the motor a 1/4 turn both ways.

Park brake check - it will engage and then disengage the electric brake to check parking brake function.

Reverse alarm check - it will beep the reverse buzzer. (Yes this means if you remove or disconnect the reverse buzzer on an RXV the cart will fail to run.)

Charger inhibit check - Checks to make sure the charger is not currently plugged into the cart.

Throttle switch check - Also called HPD or high pedal disable. Accelerator must not be pressed or the cart will not run.

Throttle operation check - The cart makes sure the pedal registers both fully closed and fully open voltages correctly.

Any of these checks not passing will cause the cart to not run.


As stated a very common cause of the cart failing to run is a malfunctioning parking (motor) brake.

mjroman20

Is there a fault code associated with this or does it simply not run? I've operated theses controls on a setup that does not have a brake on the motor, just a load across the brake coil pins to fake it out. I've not noticed any motion in the motor at key on, but occasionally the automatic test process results in full throttle with no output while there are no fault present on the control.

Isaac-1

Rule 1 of dealing with an RXV don't mess with the wiring harness, don't even blindly probe the pins, this can kill the $1,000 RXV controller if you bridge the 48VDC line to a 5V logic level line. Common place for this to happen is with people trying to add an aftermarket SOC meter as the factory SOC meter harness plug as both 48V and 5V logic level line in the same quick connector.

Now as the others have said chances are it is the parking brake, without the $700 handheld you can not read the codes which would tell you which test is failing either.

Ike

p.s. my understanding of the power on self test is that the controller senses the resistance on the parking brake lead, if that passes it tried to engage the brake and test for mechanical stopping ability, this is the twist test on the axle where it tries to turn the motor forward 1/4 turn, then back 1/4 turn and looks for slippage using the shaft encoders on the motor shaft (2 different types of encoders were used depending on the revision of the motor)

p.p.s. Once you have a new brake in hand, test the resistance on the brake before installing, to make sure it is not out of range, a few people without code readers have chased their tails looking for another problem only to find the new replacement brake had resistance out of range

sltintexas

Thanks for those details. My wife always asks me whats all the clicking when she turns the key and why does it take a second or two before it will start working.

Roxyflash

I have had the brake on rxv go bad they burn up you can smell it strip out the brake disc installed wrong causing damage.Be careful replacing one I like the ones that have the manual release built on it

williet79

Just to follow up on this for posterity purposes, this has been resolved. Looks like the root problem was seal failure on the electric brake housing. I diassembled the brake assembly and it was basically rusted together. Cleaned everything up, put it back together and it drives like a champ now.

Thanks to everyone who helped. Ya'll are kickass