05-15-2013, 01:50 PM | #1 |
Getting Wild
Join Date: May 2013
Location: East central Ohio
Posts: 113
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Sticky solenoid
A recent post suggested that a fail to start problem might be a sticky solenoid. I'm having starting problems and I wonder how does one identify a sticky solenoid and what can be done other than just replacing it to make it not sticky?
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05-15-2013, 02:42 PM | #2 |
Not Yet Wild
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Twin Lake, MI
Posts: 34
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Re: Sticky solenoid
You could check it out with a voltmeter or test light. Or just grab the solenoid and you should be able to feel it clunk when it activates.
Jack the cart up or put it in maintenance mode. Push the gas pedal down. You should be able to feel the solenoid clunk as soon as the gas pedal is pushed. With a test light or voltmeter - measure the voltage on the large wire that goes to the starter / generator. It should show 0 V at rest, then as soon as the pedal is pushed it should jump to somewhere around 12 or 13 V as the solenoid makes contact. If you are getting some sort of a lag between the time the pedal is pushed and when the cart starts to crank there is something wrong with the solenoid. |
05-15-2013, 03:02 PM | #3 |
Gone Wild
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: S.E. WIS
Posts: 176
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Re: Sticky solenoid
Like _____Brandon said or the easiest way to check is take a screw driver and jump the positive cables 1. from the battery 2. wire leading to the starter/generator (usually the two big red wires/nuts/posts directly opposite one another). If it turns over doing this and not when pushing the pedal - could be the solenoid is bad.
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05-15-2013, 08:31 PM | #4 |
Getting Wild
Join Date: May 2013
Location: East central Ohio
Posts: 113
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Re: Sticky solenoid
Thanks guys, looks like I'm needing a new solenoid.
I found a post in the archives were it was suggested to jump 12V+ directly from the battery to one of the small terminals on the solenoid and 12V- to the other small terminal. This the gentleman said should activate the solenoid and put power to the starter. I'll try that tomorrow. I don't mind paying the prices for the parts from my local dealer but it really irks me to pay 2X or more for shipping every time. (End of rant) |
05-17-2013, 07:24 AM | #5 |
Getting Wild
Join Date: May 2013
Location: East central Ohio
Posts: 113
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Re: Sticky solenoid
I did the solenoid test mentioned above and verified that the solenoid was, in fact, operating fine.
I then reinstalled the blue wire to the forward small terminal and verified that I had 12 volts when the ignition switch was on. Check. I then put a jumper wire from the other small terminal to ground and it started. So now I knew that the problem was that there was no good ground connection between the orange wire and ground. Traced this down through the start micro switch and the neutral lockout switch. In my case I found that my problem was that the slide on contacts to the micros witches were not making good contact. I sprayed them with contact cleaner and gave the contacts a few on and off strokes to cut through any oxide and life was again good. |
05-17-2013, 08:42 AM | #6 |
Happy Carting
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Southern California
Posts: 73,358
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Re: Sticky solenoid
Thank you for letting us know how you fixed it, it really helps people who read this when searching for similar problems.
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Tags |
solenoid, starting problem, sticky |
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