help 96 club cart won't start --ready to pull hair out :)

netpro

Hi guys:

I hope u can help me out here b4 i pull the rest of my hair out lol .... i am trying ( emphasis currently on the trying to help my friend fix club car golf cart ...i have some mechanical experience .. i worked on fords and diesels for long time ( gotta keep my tools from rusting somehow LOL) i think it;'s a 1996 club car with kawasaki motor it wasn't running for sometime and i got it running for him ... minor stuff .. and ran great for about a day and now wont start ...just keeps cranking over and over ...doesn't seem to be any fire/life " there " i blew out the lines, ( thinking maybe it was plugged) even changed the spark plug thinking it died ... there is spark when you crank it over ... got a nice shock from " shorting " plug wire to see if there was spark :roll

scratching my head on what to do next ... any sugesstions ...

oh yeah btw i check the micro switches etc.. they seem to be fine and o DO have a multi meter ....

i even ( dare isay it ;) poured some gas in carb while cranking ...... cringing for the backfire / fireball and nothing happend wheeeeeew

BGW

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scottyb

Check for the 3 basics requirements. A loss of compression is not out of the question.... After they sit you usually have to boil the carb out once or twice with today's gas?

If I had fuel spark and compression ~ I would pull the carb and tear it down and start clearing all passages. Checking the float etc...

Dale M

Flooded...maybe?? Try some starting fluid down the carb BUT not too much. That will let you know if you're getting POP!! If so, then it's a fuel delivery problem, fuel pump, fuel filter, carb.

netpro

i could be wrong ( as i have very little experience working on small engines but it doesn't seem that complicated ...simple engines ) but how could it be carb " issues" if it was running fine just recently ...anyway like i said .... seems more like an electrical " issue"
i even ( dare i say it ;) poured some gas in carb while cranking ...... cringing for the backfire / fireball and nothing happend wheeeeeew and even tried some ether but nothing happened .. . no pop etc... hmmmmm and btw while checking for spark it was enuf power to get a shock persay but could barely see any spark ...i'm assuming there should be an obvious spark like on a car shouldnt there ???

shadowman

if you have a really weak spark that could be your problem, best way is to get a spark tester and with cart in maintence mode crank it over and watch........you want a good steady spark if its sparking only once every 30 seconds or so i would trouble shoot it for that......a 96 depending on if its a early 96 or a late 96 ..............early 96 has coil, rpm limitor and ignitor.....the ignitor is mounted to the rear side of the bracket that holds rpm limitor on.......if its late 96 than the ignitor is built into the coil as one unit and if thats the csae since theres no real bullet proof way to test them i would start with coil/ignitor they are the weaker link.........if its the other than ignitor/rpm limitor ..............as long as your sure plug wire and sparkplug are good...........you need the ser# to determine when made or take rpm limitor off and see if ignitor is mounted on that bracket..........................

netpro

where are these items your talking about i'm a little confused about it ....

invalidsession

What Tom is referring to are the ignition system components. Your cart has an igniter and coil or, coil / igniter combined unit and a rev limiter. In 1996, CC changed to the latter combined system. To find out what you have; you will need to remove the rev limiter located under the front of the engine ( a black box approx 4 x 3"). If there is an igniter behind it you have the early system. If no igniter in that location the combined unit is behind the fan shroud. Before you go that way however, take the possibility of a bad rev limiter being your problem by removing the ground wire mounted to the engine casing right next to it. This of course, is only necessary if you have a weak or intermittent spark issue which I'm guessing is the case since your gas experiment should have provided a pop or two at least.

Chris.

netpro

hmmmmmmmmm thanks for the update i'll check into it today and get back to you ....... like you said i wanted to do some research b4 throwing parts @ it :) now that you mention it i noticed there was a loose wire with a loop on it and ( since i didn't have a wiring diagram around) i tried to figure out where it might " attach" but could find nowhere to connect it .... but b4 we go "too far" it WAS running " alright " with it disconnected so didn't give much thought to it .... btw when you say ground wire ( i'll check it out myself soon to see for myself but ..) i'm assuming that ground wire is independent of that " box " or does it has something to do with it .... sorry for dumb questions but not up on these small kawasaki engines :)

invalidsession

Wrong assumption, the ground IS what kills the spark and IS part of the rev limiter.

netpro

hi ...been a while to get to it but here it is ...i took out the parts " in question" but not sure where to go from here ... (pictures attached what i have ) anyone know how to check if these are " broken" ohm meter or ??? almost had a heart attack parts guy told me it's $300 for the 2 parts seems kinda steep to me ... what if it's not the problem ..any idea guys ????

thanks

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