ignition coil bad on 1991 Hyundai Cart.

olds1940

I'm a newby here so be kind!

My 1991 Hyundai gas golf cart was surging when I accelerate. I rebuilt the carb and set the governor and it still did it. When I changed the plug I noticed the plug wire was loose at the coil. It actually came out and when I attempted to plug it back in, it would not stay in.

I need a coil ignitor and a plug wire and I cannot find the parts online.

Does anybody know if I can adapt another 12 volt coil and coil wire?

I realize parts are hard to get so I am hoping I can adapt.

Thanks

BGW

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CharleyL

I'm not familiar with your cart, but spark plug wires usually have a metal end connector on them to plug into the coils. It's possible that this connector has come off of the wire and is still inside the coil. It's just thin brass, with a round bottom end and two wings folded up from it to wrap around the wire. These wings have a sharp barb that cuts into the insulation on the wire to hold it in place. A larger barb is located in the center of the round end that connects to the center conductor of the wire. Look into the hole in the coil to see if this connector is still inside the coil and carefully bend it away from the sides of the hole, then remove it with needle nose pliers.

You will likely need a new connector, but may need to buy a whole spark plug wire to get one. The better connectors are actually crimped to the end of the wire and are much less likely to pull off. Spark plug wires are all pretty much the same, except for their length. Just buy one from a small engine service shop that is the same length or slightly larger and it should work fine for you, but you will need to remove the old connector from the coil before using it. Automotive spark plug wires do not have an actual wire in their center. They have a string that has carbon impregnated in it. Don't use one of these in your cart. You want the one with real wire in it that's available for small engines.

Charley

olds1940

Charley,

Thanks for the advice. I did take off the coil and inspect the opening. It had a small copper dimple on the inside where the spark plug wire was pressed into it. There was no copper or brass end to the wire. So, I took one off another plug wire I had and installed it on the wire and into the opening. It fired up! BUT, it is still surging at low speeds. The igniter seems to be working but the coil may be weak.

I checked on the Yamaha G 2 coil and they look the exact same. I may order one and give it a try.

Thanks for your help!

John

CharleyL

I've never known a bad coil to cause surging. Usually they work or they don't. I would be more inclined to believe that you have inconsistent fuel flow for some reason. What kind of fuel pump does it have?

On my Cushman Truckster the mechanical fuel pump was bad when I got the Truckster and I used some McGuyver techniques to try to repair it, which worked for a while, but not great. I tried to find a NOS fuel pump, but they are no longer made and any NOS pumps that I looked at already had rotting rubber parts. They also wanted crazy prices for these NOS pumps.

I went to the auto parts store and bought.an automotive electric fuel pump for about $60. It operates whenever the ignition switch is on and it maintains a regulated fuel pressure to the carburetor. Installing it did away with the original mechanical fuel pump, the bypass filter, and return line to the fuel tank. All the lines and bypass filter had been replaced with new when I began trying to get the motor running.. The electric pump connects directly to the carburetor with no bypass or return line needed.

The improvement by going to this electric fuel pump was dramatic. After a cold start with only a little choke in the morning, the motor starts in about a half revolution the rest of the day. The engine seems to run smoother and have more power too.

Maybe you should actually get a new spark plug wire. Replacement connectors never seem to be as good as the factory installed ones.

Charley

olds1940

Charley,

I started adjusting the governor and got rid of almost all the surging. You may well be right about the fuel pump. I will try an electric pump I have in my garage.

I have been driving it the last couple of days. I also replaced the spark plug and wire. Your right! The coil works fine.

This is the second Hyundai cart I had with the Suzuki engine so I have dealt with many of the problems before. lol

I also have an early 1970 Flagmaster golf cart and a homemade cushman cart that is turned into a 31 Ford roadster. It has the 2300 OMC engine in the front backed by a 3 speed tranny.

I am trying to locate a left rear brake backing plate for the Flagmaster. They only made a few of them and they were mostly cushman components. This cart has hydraulic brakes in the rear only. No brakes in the front.

Love the carts.

Thanks for your help. You really know your stuff!

John

CharleyL

You might try looking at an early 70's Ford F-100 pickup backing plate. The brake cylinders are the same as those used in the Cushman Trucksters except for a bump in the casting that needs to be ground off if you want to use them in a Cushman. I'm using the Ford F-100 brake cylinder rebuild kits in my Truckster brake cylinders and they are a perfect fit. I bought an identical new master cylinder "off the shelf" from a local forklift service shop. It seems that some 70's and 80's forklifts use the same brake parts, so this might be another source for your backing plate - the local forklift dealer/service shop..

Great news about curing your surging problem. Some governors can do that. I didn't even think about the governor as a possibility.

Cushman didn't make much of their products, they assembled them. They made the sheet metal and maybe the fiberglass parts, probably the chassis, and the power train and steering parts were OEM common automotive parts that are still available, but you have to look for them by comparing the new ones to what you have that's bad. There is no cross reference book for them. Steering knuckles, bearings, brakes, etc. are all still available if you know where to look. I met an old guy who was working in ORiley Ato Parts that helped me find the brake cylinder re-build kits, flexible brake line from the chassis to the wishbone front steering assembly, etc. He was a great help, because he had been working in auto parts for years and knew what to look for.

The crank case vacuum operated fuel pumps also fail to pump sufficient fuel as the engine begins to wear out. Leaks in the shaft seals, gaskets, and around the piston rings lowers the crank case vacuum to the point that there isn't enough vacuum to pump enough fuel to the carburetor and the engine begins to run poorly. The vacuum operated fuel pumps were a low cost alternative to sell engines, but can create major problems as the engines get old and worn. An electric fuel pump will make a huge difference in these small engines too.

I think you mean the OMC 220 engine, the same 22 hp engine that I have. I actually have three of those Cushman/OMC engines, one in the Truckster and two completely apart in boxes - need anything? I may have it. Not like will I have normal wear parts, but missing or damaged replacements I might be able to help with. I've sold and used a few parts so far, but nothing significant.

Direct Parts and Dennis Carpenter Cushman are sources for Cushman/OMC motor wear parts. There was an OMC one cylinder version of these OMC engines made for one model of the Cushman motor scooters, and most of the parts for this engine are identical to the 2 cylinder engines. About the only difference between the 18 and 22 hp OMC engines is the design of the cylinders. 18 hp has the spark plugs located below center of the cylinders, and the 22 hp cylinders have them located above center. They redesigned the cylinder for higher compression to achieve the higher horsepower, so the pistons and everything else is the same.

I just bought 2 exhaust valves and gaskets to re-assemble my 22 hp OMC engine from Dennis Carpenter Cushman (because they are only about 12 miles away). My Truckster broke an exhaust valve a little over a year ago and it has been sitting since then because I was having health problems last year.
My Father's Day gift from my son this year was for him to help me tear the Cushman motor down. We did, and found the broken exhaust valve in the driver's side of the engine, which we suspected wen it happened last year. The broken piece was about 1/4" wide part of the rim of the valve, which thankfully remained in the cylinder and didn't do any other damage.

Now I'm hoping that he will help me put it back together. Changing valves in an engine that has both the cylinder and cylinder head together in one piece is quite difficult. You need a special valve compressor and a different kind of ring compressor to put the piston back into the cylinder again. The ring compressor has to be split on the side so you can remove it sideways after the piston has been pushed into the cylinder (you push them in from the bottom, not the top like is done when the heads are removable). The split in the band is held together and tightened to compress the rings by using a special kind of pliers that has a ratchet locking feature which holds the pliers and band closed at whatever amount of compression that you need. Once the piston is in the cylinder, you release the ratchet on the pliers and then remove the band sideways from around the connecting rod. After the cylinders are back on, it's relatively easy to reassemble the rest of the engine and I can do it without help.

I would love to re-power my Truckster with something that has more horses and hopefully more modern for easier parts sourcing. The Truckster is very under powered with only 22 hp. I can't imagine the earlier ones with only 18 hp. I found a wrecked Honda Goldwing but couldn't work a deal to get it. 46 horsepower would have been much better than 22. The Honda was a total wreck, but he still thought it was worth 80% of it's un-wrecked book value and wouldn't lower his price. I recently saw where someone had used a VW Rabbit engine in a Truckster so I'm now considering one of them at about 53 hp, but I would like to find something newer. The big problem is that the motor is under the seat in my Truckster, so any re-powering needs to fit in a very low profile. Width isn't much of a problem, but the height limit eliminates almost all possibilities Until I find a better solution I guess fixing what I have is the best way to go.

Charley

olds1940

Charley,

You are a wealth of information! You have made my hobby a great deal more fun! You are correct on the engine size.

The part that is broke on the Flagmaster is a cylinder looking steel piece that holds the brake shoes on at the bottom of the backing plate. The cylinder thing holds the adjusters.


Thanks,

John - St. Louis, Mo.

olds1940

Charley,

Here are a couple of pictures of the carts.

a cart.jpg

Attached Images

cushman hotrod 004.jpg (302.9 KB, 0 views)

olds1940

Here is the Flagmaster cart.Flagmaster.jpg

CharleyL

John,

Can you post pictures of the identification plate, if it still exists. (maybe gone with the old body) It would help a lot if I could see it. It would be, or have been, located on the front wall of the cab below the windshield and just to the left of the steering wheel.

I love the looks of the roadster, but it needs something better than an OMC engine in it. If it's got the Cushman rear differential in it, that's going to be hard to find parts for it too. I have a spare from an 89 three wheel police Truckster that seems to be the same as what I have in my 87 four wheel Truckster. I would trade both for a working two range with a PTO differential from a similar age Turf Truckster. Getting the brake drums off of these Cushman rear axles is major difficult if you don't have the special tool. It's just a piece of hex stock with a blind hole in one end threaded to fit the end of the axle. You remove the nut from the axle and replace it with this tool, Then you beat on the end with a big hammer to "pop" the brake drum free. WD40 and pry bars help too. You can't hit the axle end directly with the hammer or you will damage or swell the axle threads and destroy the axle.b

I'm beginning to hate working on the OMC engines because I've had mine apart so often (5 times in 5 years). Those "motorcycle like" or "airplane radial engine like" one piece head/cylinders are tough to work on and the real weak link in the OMC engines. The aluminum threads in the spark plug holes go bad easily too, and replacement thread kits don't seem to survive well in these engines (I've tried). Replacement parts and prices for them are getting too difficult to find and pricing for them is getting crazy high as well. I just bought the two exhaust valves for $15 each, but along with the gaskets to reassemble the two sides of the motor ran me $96 total. A new cylinder complete with valves is $300. Glad I don't need one, yet.

Do a search on this forum for "Cushman Truckster Saved From The Forest" or the earliest posts from me, if you want to see pictures and know more about my Truckster recovery and rebuild. I've had to repair or replace almost every mechanical part/device on it.

Here's a link to another one of my "hobbies". http://www.railroadforums.com/forum/...C-Village-Park


Charley