New member 200$ 97 ds kicking out of reverse

[els1989]

So this week I picked up a ol ds gas cart that was rigged up as a maintenance cart for 200$. She’s ugly but for 200$ I couldn’t resist. Got it home and started messing with it battery wouldn’t hold a charge so that was junk. Solenoid was clicking so I assumed the starter generator was bad pulled it out and took it apart to discover the brushes looked fine so I tapped all the carbon dust out of the casing and reassembled.

Switched to using my voltage meter to diagnose the solenoid was not sending power down stream. Went to a local golf cart dealer to buy a new solenoid, tune up kit, and basket and roof supports to change it back into a golf cart for a total of 160$. Installed the new solenoid and it fired right up without touching anything else other than installing the air filter which when I bought it there was no filter.

So after getting it running I tried to back it out of the garage and this is when I noticed it pops out of reverse and makes a grinding noise. Now I’ve real a little bit on here one guy said on another thread to drive in forward and slam it into reverse. I entertained this idea after changing gear lube in the transaxle and trying to get it to stay in reverse by disconnecting the shifter cable, which didn’t work either.

So now without being able to find any transaxle rebuilds or threads of anyone else really fixing this problem and showing others how to do it or the lack of a repair manual, here I am. Help me get this budget bitch working in forward and reverse guys 🤣

I also picked up a set of fresh take offs with like new kenda hole in one tires for 5$ each so total investment is at 480$

[charlie99]

I don't know about previous threads, but the transaxle rebuild is covered in the club car maintenance manuals. One is here, but there are others:
https://www.manualslib.com/download/...Car-Fe290.html

Also, but Brad Porcellato's Kawasaki engine book has a section on transaxle teardown, repair and reassembly:
https://porcellato.com/club-car-engine-rebuilding

I have Brad's book, and think it's a good value for the price, especially if you plan (and are equipped) to do the work your self. Lots of pictures and personal insight. No troubleshooting in the transaxle section of his book, but I suspect if you disassemble yours, the problem will jump out at you.

[Fairtax4me]

There used to be a thread here that covered some of it, but its so simple you really don't need much.
Pull the axle out, remove the right side axle tube, just unbolt the whole thing and it comes off, then you can use the other side to stand it up.
Then pull the case cover off and lift/wiggle the input shaft and counter shaft out.
Anything that's worn will likely be on the input shaft.
You will need a press to get the input shaft apart to replace any bearings or syncro rings. There are some thrust washers in there that can fail as well.
Bearings are pretty standard. Any other parts you will need to get from Club Car, or from a Kawasaki pats dealer.
Find an illustrated parts manual for your year and you can get all the part numbers for what you need.

Charlie posted a link to Porcellato's book. Brad has done tons of stuff to these, and even had a rebuild video on youtube several years ago, but I think it has been removed. Brad sells parts for these, but I'm not sure if he still sells to the US. Last I heard he was only doing sales in Canada.

[els1989]

Originally Posted by charlie99

I don't know about previous threads, but the transaxle rebuild is covered in the club car maintenance manuals. One is here, but there are others:
https://www.manualslib.com/download/...Car-Fe290.html

Also, but Brad Porcellato's Kawasaki engine book has a section on transaxle teardown, repair and reassembly:
https://porcellato.com/club-car-engine-rebuilding

I have Brad's book, and think it's a good value for the price, especially if you plan (and are equipped) to do the work your self. Lots of pictures and personal insight. No troubleshooting in the transaxle section of his book, but I suspect if you disassemble yours, the problem will jump out at you.

I do have a illustrated parts manual for 2001-2002 ds and thanks for sharing the link on the service manual. I’ve been putting around on it a little bit with some intermittent runs great for 10-15 minutes then looses spark.

I just ordered micro switches to see if new switches solves the loss of spark issue I disconnected the ground wire from the rpm limiter to find out if that fixed it still no dice so I also ordered a new ignition coil but I’ll be replacing the micros first to see if that solves the problem before swapping ignition coils. As for the transaxle she will have to wait until I’m ready to tackle it.

Placed an order for some double take veranda edition seats with new hip restraints to update the seats to match the canopy, bag and rail system that’s on the cart as well… so now at 900$ invested, planning on sanding the body and doing a green raptor liner paint job on the body.