HD F&R Switch Adjustment

timbo73

First of all this is my first post and would like to thank all those who have help me educate my knowledge about my golf cart.

I have a 99 Ezgo TXT 36V Series cart that I recently upgraded the entire power delivery circuit. Which includes 2g cables, HD F&R switch, 500 amp Alltrax controller, and HD solenoid.

With the guidance of this forum I got every working with the exception of one intermittent problem. The symptom I am having is that about 1 in every 10 times of switching between forward and reverse the cart does not move forward. Then, when I move the forward reverse switch from reverse to forward, it moves forward again.

I have made sure that my F&R switch linkage is tight and even tried sliding the F&R switch in the outboard direction about an 1/8 of an inch to help engagement of the contacts.

There seems to be allot of force required to move the switch from forward to reverse and the F&R plate flexes. Would and adjustment to the nut on the back side of the F&R switch help my problem?

Any thoughts of suggestions would greatly be appreciated.

BGW

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scottyb

Welcome to BGW!
If this is NOT one of my HD F&R switches remove the switch cam and apply liberal amounts of dielectric grease to the cam and housing contacts. This will help reduce friction and improve contact.

Beyond that you may want to look at the linkage adjustment. The linkage adjustment is actually the 2 slotted holes where you mount the switch to the floor. Scoot the switch a tiny bit toward the driver side to gain more movement when shifting to forward. I hope this makes sense?
My advice to everybody considering swapping the F&R is to trace the base of old unit out with a light color marker or soap stone before they remove it. Then it's easy to insure the new unit bolts up in the same spot and the shifter usually works okay...

timbo73

Scottyb this is one of your HD F&R Switches, as well as the rest of my upgrades. I did mark the position of the old switch. However, the slots on the new switch do not quite allow me to get to the old location. I was about 1/8 of an inch short. In fact, I believe I had the switch slid as far toward the drivers side as possible I will take another look at this tonight.

In regards to the cam on the new HD F&R switch. Am I understanding correctly that since it did come from you I should not remove it and apply grease? If not then what can be done to make the switch operate more more freely?

scottyb

My switches have are greased during assembly. They can be a little stiff to operate, especially with the HD buss bars in them. You can back off the tension on NUT B per the instruction sheet (1/4 turn) but, you do so at the risk of reducing contact tension so be careful not to do too much... Sometimes they just get easier to shift with use.

See if you tell if the switch cam stop is contacting the housing stop when in forward. You may need a small mirror to see this. All the HD F&Rs are tested before leaving the shop.

yurtle

I placed my FNR switch in Neutral - dead center - and adjusted it until the lever was completely straight up. Then I visually checked to make sure the switch would travel all the way to the forward and reverse sstops.

timbo73

I worked on this issue most of the evening last night. First, I observed the travel of the linkage on the F&R switch and noticed that at times I was about 1/8 of an inch short of hitting the stop in the forward position.

So I removed the entire F&R switch and elongated the slots with my Dremal to gain some movement of the switch to the drivers side. Reassembled and confirmed I am getting full movement of the cam.

After all that, and some testing in the drive way of moving the cart from forward to reverse the problem still exists. At time the cart does not move. But if I move the F&R lever slightly it makes connection and the cart will move.

Also, I did notice that the F&R linkage behind the lever tends bottom out on itself thus limiting the travel. However, the cam appears to be fully in the forward position at that point.

I believe I have exhausted all possible failure modes at this point. I am thinking I will leave it be for now and see if break in of the new HD F&R switch will improve this condition.

One concern is will the cart ever lose the connection on the cam of the F&R switch while moving? I am hoping that once the connections at the cam are establish the likely hood of the happening is null. I don't want my family losing drive power while driving up some of the hills around the campground.

scottyb

I hate to see it not be right 100% of the time. Return the switch to me for testing, repair, or replacement. Shipping info will be sent to your PM. Scotty

timbo73

I got my cart back up to the cottage this past weekend and was able to get some drive time in. The cart ran flawlessly! Turns out a 1/4 turn adjustment on the nut located on the back side of the F&R switch made a world of difference.

SCTurkeyHunter1

Great to see that kind of service!

old dawg

timbo, what nut exactly was that?