Revamp of a well used 05' Precedent (long post)

[Jeff McGuire]

Originally Posted by youngsoogolfcart01

looks really good.. I'm working on my Pathway now already put rims tires and lift kit on. about to get seats, new shocks, heavy duty springs for the rear, and now thanks to you. I may copy your dash speakers and amp. Cant be out done.. LOL

Avoid the HD rear springs. I thought i needed them too, but dang they rode horrible! I took 2 of the 4 springs out of the pack.

[Jeff McGuire]

Well back at it. First thing I needed to go back in and replace the crappy Rockville amplifier. It lost 2 channels and had horrible feedback when swapping source on the radio. I found a Pioneer 5 channel that had good reviews. Its pushing the about the same amount of power and is much smaller. It actually sounds quite a bit better, and i have zero noise when powering up or changing sources on the head-unit.



Then i wanted to add brake lights because we are legal to drive in a local beach town but my cart needed brake lights. I just ordered a $10 brake switch to wire into the factory wiring. I had to fab up a bracket out of aluminum to hold it. That was not hard. I hooked it up, completed the relay wiring behind the dash, and nothing. Turns out because i don't have a turn signal switch that the brake wiring is not complete on a Precedent. Behind the dash I had to make a jumper to go from the signal from the brake switch to both rear lights. I don't have a 9-pin plug so i just made some bullets to shove in there and insulated it with some hot glue. Its a bit crude but it works.



I ordered a cheap timer relay on ebay to time out the brake lights incase i leave the brakes locked and the key on. Its coming from Bulgaria so it might be a while before i get that and install it.

[AlexYannoulatos]

What a transformation, looks great!

[Jeff McGuire]

The latest update to the never ending build! (I have issues)
The wife liked the underglow but wanted some lights inside (topside). I didn't want to just throw some lights around the rooftop. I wanted to be a bit different. On my RZR I put LED's behind the speakers since they have white cones and they glow great. Well these speakers have a black cone so that wouldn't work so i decided to add acrylic rings beneath the speaker so we have some glow topside. They are really bright.

[TheNewGuy]

Very nice !!!

[jakesnake27]

Very cool!

[Jeff McGuire]

Back on the cart. Wanted to finally get a precedent seat for it and get the seats covered to add a little contrast to it. Previous owner had a ez-go seat back on it that was painted black. Went with black and charcoal vinyl in hopes of tying in the carbon fiber dash. They aren't nearly as dark as the dash but I like them. I'm no upholster but they turned out OK.

[Jeff McGuire]

Well it was time to retire the tired old lead acid battery. I had drained it too many times and it gave up. I want to be able to play the radio for a long time and not worry about that battery. It was time to invest in a Optima battery. I decided yellow top was probably best suited for my application.

Install was super simple. There are some tabs inside the tub that have to be trimmed off. The one in the rear of the tub you shave till its flush with the tub wall. The hump in the front by the solenoid needs to be cut flat with the bottom of the tub. Then use the two red adapters that come with the battery. The back one needs 1/4" trimmed off the end that faces the front of cart. Then in the front of battery there is a small lip that held the factory hold down in place. I just notched out enough of it to allow the GM style hold down to sit flat on the tub floor. There is already a hole for the bolt there (although i did need a longer bolt). That was it. Probably 10-15 minutes to trim it up and install. Fits excellent and looks like it was supposed to go there.

[Jeff McGuire]

Well the project continues (never ends actually). I found a FE400 that I am going to rebuild and do some mods to and then drop it in. The motor is a 2013 FE400d-es05 which had me excited until I tore it apart and saw just how rough she was. Never saw it run but the guys claimed it ran but smoked. Well upon tear down it appears to already had a head gasket replaced once before (which is the common reason for the 400 smoking). The bore doesn't show any sign of significant wear or scaring although there is no crosshatch left in the cylinder. The outer counter-balance arm has slack in it though. I got it off and the crank is marginal. I believe i can polish it out though.

So my plan is to:
replace the counter balance shaft arm
hone the block and re-ring the piston
replace the crank seals and block gasket
Minor port and polish of the head
replace valve seals
Shave the head to bump compression
lighten the flywheel
and probably advance the timing a bit

I ordered the Club Car book that Brad Porcellato put out. I'll get my flywheel and head mill specs from him and also see what other useful information he has to share. I'll update as i go along.

[Noonan]

Looks like it's coming along nicely, a far cry from what it was when you got it. Nice work!