marathon stops need help troubleshooting

smokey tennis shoe

I have an old ezgo western cart. Somewhere between 1985 and 1990 I would say.

It is 48 volt ( I don't see too many). The cart has very strong batteries, one year old, and I just load tested them all. They are all within .1 volts of each other 8.5.

The cart was going, and just stopped dead. It wouldn't go again, so I towed it home.

I replaced the solenoid. ( the previous solenoid did not have a diode or a resistor on it, and has been running fine for years.

I have a alltrax 4844 controller and the cart has a potentiometer ( nivel part # 469).

SO I charged the cart, installed the new solenoid, and the cart ran. I was driving down the street, came to a stop sign, stepped on the brakes, and the cart would not run again.

I towed it home, jacked up one rear tire, and turned the key on, put cart in forward, and stepped on the go pedal.Everytime I step on the pedal, the solenoid clicks/closes and sends 51 volts to the controller, and on to the motor. While it is jacked up, the cart engages every single time that I step on the pedal, both in forward and in reverse.

The green lite lites on the controller when I stepon the pedal..

Any ideas???

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

scottyb

Controller & solenoid work. Check pot output. if good = F&R or motor problem ...... assuming all the cable connections are solid.

smokey tennis shoe

Scotty

Thanks for responding. Cables and connections are all tight, and batteries are solid.

When you say "measure pot ", I am not following you, how do I do that?

The f/r, will it respond differently, when driving verses being jacked up? Because when driving, cart stops. When jacked up, it works everytime??

JohnnieB

Check the throttle input to controller. Should be a 0-5K pot.

Disconnect Black and White wires at controller and measure between the wires with an Ohmmeter.
About Zero Ohms with pedal up and about 5,000 Ohms with pedal down.
Should increase smoothly between 0 and 5K.

However, if the wheel spins when off the ground and the speed it is spinning can be controller by the pedal, the pot-box is probably okay.

The difference between moving the cart and just spinning the wheels in the air is the amount of amps flowing in the drive system.
Sounds like everything is working when the motor isn't drawing many amps, but something is failing when motor tries to draw the amps it needs to move the cart.

Try cleaning/adjusting the high current contacts in the F/R assembly.

smokey tennis shoe

J B Thanks for the info. I will check the black and white wires this morning.

I will also take the f/r apart, and check that.

Since the motor will spin in forward and reverse, can I assume that the motor is ok? Since the motor does run, the only thing left in there would be brushes, how can I check them? Can I do it without removing the motor?

JohnnieB

The fact it runs in both directions is a good sign. Chances are it is good.

You have to disassemble motor to check the brushes and you have to dismount the motor to disassemble it.

The rear bearings on the armature shaft are press fit into the end-cap, so the armature and end-cap come out of the motor housing together.

The other end of the armature shaft has splines that mate with the splines on the differential input shaft, and the splines tend to rust together, so getting the motor off the differential can be challenging.

scottyb

Do a simple load test for each battery before you remove the motor.
Attach the meter to one battery at a time and use the cart as the load.
Post your results:
standing voltage and then lowest reading under hard acceleration.



When you say the cart works on a Jack Stand but fails on the ground, I think battery problem first.

smokey tennis shoe

I did the battery load test. I hooked the meter to battery individually, then floored the cart and drove aways.

Here are the numbers :

Battery standing voltage floored/loaded voltage

#1 8.59 7.99
#2 8.46 7.99
#3 8.40 7.95
#4 8.42 7.98
#5 8.45 7.98
#6 8.52 8.0

pack 50.8 47.6

To me , it appears these numbers are good. The batteries are 2 years old.

Assuming these numbers are good, and since cart runs in both directions, with the occasional stopping, I think I should be ordering a f/r switch, as scotty B earlier suggested?

smokey tennis shoe

Oh, I forgot to add, JB I checked the pot at the black and white wire, and yes, 0 to 5k, so that seems fine.

smokey tennis shoe

Do these battery numbers seem ok?