1980 Club Car stalling problem

[Elitewolf]

I am working on a 1990 Club Car 36 volt with vglide system with resistors. Cart will run on hard dirt or pavement well as much as a couple of miles or more but when you start across the yard in fairly soft grass it will slow to a complete stop. Batteries are good, only drop 1-2 tenths volt over this period of use, measuring each battery seperately. Let cart rest 10 min. after stall and it will continue for a while longer. It also does this when loading on trailer ramp. I have checked contacts in vglide and no pitting or burns. Sweep arm works smoothly. any ideas? could the motor be going bad..thanks for any help.

[scottyb]

Originally Posted by Elitewolf

I am working on a 1980 Club Car 36 volt with vglide system with resistors. Cart will run on hard dirt or pavement well as much as a couple of miles or more but when you start across the yard in fairly soft grass it will slow to a complete stop. Batteries are good, only drop 1-2 tenths volt over this period of use, measuring each battery seperately. Let cart rest 10 min. after stall and it will continue for a while longer. It also does this when loading on trailer ramp. I have checked contacts in vglide and no pitting or burns. Sweep arm works smoothly. any ideas? could the motor be going bad..thanks for any help.

This sounds like typical battery trouble. Can you attach the DVM to the battery pack and see if the batteries are being drawn down hard by the softer footing?

[shadowman]

Originally Posted by scottyb

This sounds like typical battery trouble. Can you attach the DVM to the battery pack and see if the batteries are being drawn down hard by the softer footing?

have to agree this sounds like a battery problem.....you need to test and load test each battery and check cells with hydrometer.......how old are they? and are you sure all solenoids are working? ........i would suggest starting with batteries and cables............................

[Elitewolf]

Thanks, will check draw on battery pack when stalling in a few min. to shadowman, only see one solenoid, this cart has the wire resistor coils on it...it does feel as though it goes directly to top speed when it starts...

[scottyb]

Check to see the resistor coils are not touching one another?

[Elitewolf]

scottyb, draw on battery pack brings voltage down to 16volts...coils are not touching

[shadowman]

Originally Posted by Elitewolf

Thanks, will check draw on battery pack when stalling in a few min. to shadowman, only see one solenoid, this cart has the wire resistor coils on it...it does feel as though it goes directly to top speed when it starts...

are you sure its an 80? and not a 90 if so it should have 5 solenoids i beleive but if not as scotty said check your resistor coils for breaks, being overly rusted or touching each other......none of the coils should touch each other, the cart you decribe in your 1st post with a v-glide and 1 solenoid i don,t beleive they made them in 80 so double check on the year....................

[Elitewolf]

Shadowman, you are absolutely right, either these old eyes are playing tricks on me or I just looked wrong, it's a 90 and I think I might see the problem, but I've got to pull a battery out to see, it looks like one of the cables on the vglide might have got out of place and be touching another, looks like the fourth from the front is touching the fifth...
will check this out now, thanks guys for the quick response, maybe I'll get this one going yet....

[89GatorClub]

My 89 club car has the same single solenoid and bank of resistors

[Elitewolf]

Thanks for the help, while doing the suggested checks, I discovered a cable on the vglide shorted to main wire. This was causing cart to only have wide open throttle no matter what pedal position was. During inclines or soft ground travel it did not have enough torque to pull causing excessive battery drain.
Till the next problem, thanks again.