2002 36V EZGO TXT Voltage Reading 37V

srhoward

I’ve been storing my batteries individually outside of my buggy in my cold garage on the floor for a couple of months while working on it.

Tonight I reinstalled everything. I checked the voltage of the pack with my voltmeter discovering to my surprise that it was reading 37V. The OEM LED bar meter was also maxed out. I’ve never had that voltage or had the bar meter maxed out (the batteries are in rough shape).

Diagnostic mode showed no faults.

So I turned everything on and pressed the pedal to see if it would move. Absolutely nothing. No movement whatsoever in forward or reverse. I would have expected some attempt for the motor to turn especially at 37V.

Could the batteries be so completely dead (to power a load) but still read such a high voltage??

Could the cold environment be a factor in this phenomenon?

I’m the meantime, it’s on the charger hoping for the best tomorrow...

BGW

__________________
This advertising will not be shown in this way to registered members.
Register your free account today and become a member on Buggies Gone Wild Golf Cart Forum

Sir Nuke

your batteries are just a little low (70% SOC) but not low enough to cause something that you described. but certainly need to be charged.

you didn't mention what you have been doing to your cart, but I would start your troubleshooting with what you have done to it. double/triple check your cables/wiring.

srhoward

Ok thanks I’ll check again but I’m 99.9999% sure I reconnected everything back as it was. I took detailed notes and pictures. Everything is working perfectly (voltages, key, meter, Reverse buzzer, buzzer indicating diagnostic mode with no faults) except the most important thing - motor turning lol!

One of the things I was doing was replacing the key switch (the old one was sticky). When I did so, I found 3 wires coming to it, 2 were connected, one was taped up and terminated. Not sure why - and just assumed it was ok to leave like that because it was “like that before”. But I’m always questioning if there is some relation...

Thanks I’ll double, triple, quadruple check cabling.

yurtle

Is this a series cart? If so, does the solenoid click? If not, that tells you where to look - the small current wires.

srhoward

Thanks Yurtle. I’ll check that tonight. Do you know of any test points that I can check with the voltmeter with the pedal on/off? Key on/off?

Edit: found this thread http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/elect...ontroller.html

yurtle

Hopefully the batteries didn't sit long enough to have experienced permanent damage. Several months without charge could be bad, especially if you didn't fully charge before storage. There is a belief, what I always assumed was a wives tale, that leaving flooded lead acid (FLA) batteries on concrete kills them. They should have been charged at least monthly. You have enough cables already and only need 8 AWG for charging.

37.?? can represent a big difference. Need at least one decimal point.

OEM LED bar meter resets when the charging is complete, so ignore that. Get a real volt meter.

Cold weather can reduce run time, but doesn't explain no-go.

srhoward

37V was read with a real voltmeter. I’ll give you 2 additional decimal places 37.60V on the pack. Didn’t think giving additional accuracy would make a difference. Does it in this case?

Batteries were fully charged prior to removal. Probably 2 months sitting on cold concrete.

P.S. intention was to replace the batteries in the spring anyway so I didn’t really care about these ones - until now for testing purposes!

yurtle

Dunno if you truncated or rounded, so worst case...
37.99 volts = over 90%
37.00 volts = around 65%

srhoward

Yurtle & Sir Nuke,

You were both right that the voltage reading did not explain the no-go. What explained it was a cabling issue. Previous owner connected a wire to a terminal with electrical tape and it fell off.

Yurtle, good to know about the voltage readings and what represents a full charge. Pack was exactly 37.60V (not rounded or truncated).

I need new batteries anyway. When I purchased the cart the batteries were half empty with lead plates exposed and the range of the cart sucked.

I’ll be getting new batteries in the spring and new cables (4AWG I think?)

Thanks again.

cgtech

Sounds good. In the meantime, keep them full just above the plates, and keep them charged. Sounds like they could use as many charges as possible. Feel free to unplug and replug the charger every time you walk by it if the charger has shut off. It won't hurt it, and could only help it at this point. Not like you are further "wearing out" the batteries that are already worn out. Wish I could recommend those "snake oil fixes" to help you, but as I have said before, if they actually worked there would be many threads about how it saved them from a new set of batteries, there are none. This place doesn't delete threads like that if it was real (I would have seen them and called BS for suppression)