In a Quag

[huntintales]

dont know if I screwed myself by trouble shooting my cart. Well I have been trouble shooting with all the info I can get off here. I was trying to test to see if my controller was bad on my 92 ezgo, that has a curtis 1204 controller. I was informed that if I jumped the two big post on the controller with a jumper cable It would tell me if it was bad, if the wheels didnt spin. Well I did that , and within five secondes a puff of smoke came off of my solenoid. I instantly pulle the jumper off and since that puff of smoke, my solenoid no longer clicks? There is this little diode/resistor looking thing on top of the solenoid and I think that is what burned up ,but I not for sure. Im wondering if I fried the solenoid...??? Any experienced input would be much appreciated.

Thanks

[scottyb]

There are either 3 or 4 large blade terminals on the top of the controller (depending) ..... which 2 did you connect?

[huntintales]

Update. Well i now realize that i jumped the two wrong terminals after i looked at my notes. So i go out there this morning and realize i jumped the wrong ones. So i jumped the b- to m- and the motor turned so i immediately disconnected. Also i discovered "oddly" that my solenoid is clicking again and seems to be working. But im back to square one. Although i jumped the conteoller to
Run my motor. I still dont know if that is telling me the controller is bad. My curtis 1204 controller has four large terminals and three small little wire connectors on it. Bad contoller or something else?


Thank you

[JohnnieB]

Troubleshooting 101: Throw any and all jumper wires into nearest trash can and get a DMM (Digital Multi-Meter)

Kidding aside, as you recently discovered, it is very easy to get into a lot of trouble with a jumper wire.
They do have their uses, but the occasions a jumper wire needs to be used are exceedingly few and far between.

The MOSFETs (Metal Oxide Field Effect Transistors) that control the amount of current the motor is allowed to draw, are located between the controller's M- and B- terminals.

The motor ran when you jumpered between them, so the controller is bad, or the throttle input to the controller is bad.

Disconnect the black and white wires (push-on connectors on small terminals) and measure between the wires with an Ohmmeter.
Should smoothly vary between about -0- and about 5,000 Ohms as pedal is slowly pressed to floor.

If not, troubleshoot the throttle circuit.
If so, the controller is bad.

[huntintales]

Did as advised and the throttle appeared to work as you specified in the directions of using a dvm (dead on from 0 - 5 as I pressed the foot pedal).
So looks like the controller is shot.

Thanks

[JohnnieB]

Yep. Sounds like the controller is bad.

You might want to replace the resistor also, sounds like it got cooked when the wrong terminals were jumpered.