97 Club Car DS Speed Issue

[beriahthebee]

Hi All,
I am hoping someone can help point me in the right direction. I have looked through these forums trying to find some answers already and gained a lot of useful information but now I am just at a loss as to how to apply it.

Last year I bought my first golf cart a 97 Club Car DS; its 48v. It had new batteries put in when we bought it. It charges fine, holds a charge well, and according to my multimeter puts out a solid power output

However I feel the speed is a bit slow though the average speed on even grade is about 11-12mph, uphills 9-10mph, and downhill 12-13mph. Which from what I can find this is typical.

My problem is there were a couple of times that the cart has gone CONSIDERABLY faster; I loved that speed we got from it, but it was short lived. I tried to look up what would cause it to be so much faster but no luck.

The pedal seemed "touchy" during these times of increased speed. When letting off the pedal the cart would slow down rapidly (like you hit the brakes) until it reached its normal speed and then slow down like normal. Accelerating seemed to be unaffected, it was pretty smooth...but boy it would get a higher top end. If I had to guess we were doing maybe near 20mph

I have some familiarity with electric circuits and I have a slight understanding of the relationship between Voltage/Amps and a DC motor. However I cannot duplicate these increased speeds episodes. It just seems to happen at random.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Mooncarter]

Does this cart have 2 solenoids?

[beriahthebee]

Originally Posted by Mooncarter

Does this cart have 2 solenoids?

Yes. I believe so.

[Mooncarter]

Pull the cover off the rear. Drive it a bit and see if the large coil across the solenoid on the driver's side is getting hot.

[beriahthebee]

Originally Posted by Mooncarter

Pull the cover off the rear. Drive it a bit and see if the large coil across the solenoid on the driver's side is getting hot.

Ill give it a try and report back.

[Mooncarter]

Originally Posted by beriahthebee

Ill give it a try and report back.

[beriahthebee]

Originally Posted by Mooncarter

Pull the cover off the rear. Drive it a bit and see if the large coil across the solenoid on the driver's side is getting hot.

So both my solenoids are on the passenger side. I took a picture and used a laser thermometer to check temps. I included the pic.



Drive Side is to the right in the picture. I also read the temps of the wires too.

The driver side solenoid read between 85 and 89 degrees. The passenger side solenoid read between 87 and 90 degrees. The wires lead off of them to the motor were around 105 degrees

I dont think the image link worked...

https://ibb.co/LkM6gsV

[Mooncarter]

You must have a Regen 1. On the solenoid closest to the driver's side unhook every wire going to that solenoid. Re-connect the 2 white large cables to one of the large solenoid posts on either side. (Both on the same post.) Drive it and see what happens.

Unhook battery pack before doing any of this.

[beriahthebee]

Originally Posted by Mooncarter

You must have a Regen 1. On the solenoid closest to the driver's side unhook every wire going to that solenoid. Re-connect the 2 white large cables to one of the large solenoid posts on either side. (Both on the same post.) Drive it and see what happens.

Unhook battery pack before doing any of this.

So disconnect even the smaller gauge wires as well? Effectively taking that solenoid out of the circuit?

Ill try that today. Thanks

While looking more at the wiring. I noticed that that solenoids green cables are connected to this resistor bar at the same point. As shown in this picture.

https://ibb.co/hKWBfwm

Isn't that wrong? Shouldnt one green connected at one end and one connected to the other end? Or is this effectively a ground?

[Mooncarter]

Originally Posted by beriahthebee

So disconnect even the smaller gauge wires as well? Effectively taking that solenoid out of the circuit?

Ill try that today. Thanks

While looking more at the wiring. I noticed that that solenoids green cables are connected to this resistor bar at the same point. As shown in this picture.

https://ibb.co/hKWBfwm

Isn't that wrong? Shouldnt one green connected at one end and one connected to the other end? Or is this effectively a ground?

Somebody has removed the resistor coil from bar. Take those green cables completely out. I don't know what that person was trying to do. After doing this proceed exactly as I described above.

And yes, this will take the second solenoid out of the circuit.