Cart died, smoke coming off solenoid.

[hawmarine]

I know this post is long but please read it through, maybe it might help.

There was no short between the big and little terminals. The small ring terminals even if turned won't touch the large terminals. And all the wire casing is intact and not showing bare anywhere. This cart had three 1-3 minute test rides on it, and the drive where it failed was less than two minutes. So there is no chance that the casing rubbed through anywhere. This was a modification I installed, and all of the wires that connect to those small ring terminals are brand new because I ran them. There are absolutely no black marks on any terminal that would indicate arcing. The black is all surface soot from the heat coming up beneath it.

The only thing visible when the system was smoking is an orange glow coming from beside the terminal on the bottom small stud. It looks almost like a tiny arc but coming from underneath the black mark next to the small terminal, almost like it was inside. There is no insulator provided with this solenoid for any terminals. This is exactly how it came from ScottyB when I purchased it. Is there any way it could have shorted from moisture? It was raining all day yesterday and maybe some water got into the area where the solenoid is.

I didn't mention because I didn't think it was relevant, but maybe it is. While towing the camper out to the camp ground the Golf Cart had a incident. We arrived at the Camp Ground, and my GF opened the garage area and said there was water everywhere. It was pouring rain on the 2.5 hour drive, so I thought maybe the new 5th wheel was leaking.

For some reason I lifted the seat on the Golf Cart and imagine my surprise when every battery is moved around and deshuvled. Two of the batteries were on the side, the water all over the camper wasn't water, it was battery acid. How the hell this happened I dont know, I never hit a bump at enough speed to lift all 6 of those batteries, and the cart was tied down and never moved. I then was removing the cart and the brakes didn't hold it on the ramp, although it stops fine when driving, on the ramp the brakes didn't even slow it down and it slammed into the ground at the hitch attached to my brand new Doubletake Max 5 back seat. And you guessed it, it bent the **** thing down, so now it has a sag. I went to the store and got baking soda and cleaned all the acid up, and called it a night.The next morning I checked the levels in the batteries. Two of them had empty cells. So I went to the local golf cart store and bought acid to refill them. As well as two straps to start strapping the batteries down when transporting them.

I got back to the camper and started to fill the empty cells. Suddenly I felt something splash on my foot, My GF looks under the cart and acid is pouring out onto the ground. Two of the batteries had cracks in them, that's why the cells where empty. Oh yeah did I mention that all 6 of the batteries where less than 24 hours old. Yep I had bought them at 4 o'clock that afternoon and put them in the cart. Yep brand new Deka 215 batteries ruined.

So I went back to the store and bought two batteries. Came back to the camp ground and removed all the other batteries. I cleaned the whole compartment with baking soda solution and reinstalled everything. I then left it to sit and dry out for a couple hours before the ride that it broke down. Could maybe some water from cleaning or moisture from the rain have caused this?

So yeah it's been a hell of a weekend. Bought 6 batteries Friday, replaced two Saturday. Ordered the **** disk breaks for this thing like I should have done from the beginning, and now I have to get a hold of ScottyB, and get him to add a solenoid to that brake order. Exspensive pain in the rump weekend. And I'm hoping that I don't have to go buy new rims and tires when the brakes show up because of fitment issues, because I don't care if the rims that are on it are big enough I just want this **** rebuild done and working.

[Cruise Master]

Is it possible that when you tighten down the connections you over torqued them resulting in an internal short? Bad thing about carts is there's no torque guide on stuff like that which I'm aware of. My best guess would be 10-15 foot pounds on the solenoid nuts.

Also on that solenoid of yours was there two nuts? That lower nut is meant to have a wrench on it so it does not move when the top one is tightened down. To me those two nut systems are asking for trouble and should be designed better in the first place.

[radioman]

You have had something draw a lot of current to burn up the solenoid. The small wires and lugs have nothing to do with your problem. Check the big wire under the blue tie wrap that is not connected to the big stud. It looks like it may have rubbed against the big stud and made connection. The rain was just to aggravate you further. You are lucky the batteries didn't explode.

[yurtle]

I flipped my golf cart on its side, and the batteries never moved an inch, nor did they lose any electrolyte. Buy the proper battery hold down. Losing brakes sounds like you may have gotten some battery electrolyte in them, so wash them out good. I lost brakes after driving across a flooded bridge. It's possible some electrolyte got on, or even in the solenoid, which is quite conductive.

This is something you could (should) have told us from the start.

[hawmarine]

Originally Posted by yurtle

I flipped my golf cart on its side, and the batteries never moved an inch, nor did they lose any electrolyte. Buy the proper battery hold down. Losing brakes sounds like you may have gotten some battery electrolyte in them, so wash them out good. I lost brakes after driving across a flooded bridge. It's possible some electrolyte got on, or even in the solenoid, which is quite conductive.

This is something you could (should) have told us from the start.

Honestly I didn't think any battery liquid got to the solenoid area because it was all coming out of the bottom of the battery. Guess it is possible. I bought the cart with out a hold down, honestly didn't even know there was one for it till you said so. I've never seen it on any golf cart I've seen.

[radioman]

Check the big wire the blue tie wrap securing the two red wires to! If you don't find a short somewhere there is going to be a repeat of what you had yesterday.

[hawmarine]

Originally Posted by radioman

Check the big wire the blue tie wrap securing the two red wires to! If you don't find a short somewhere there is going to be a repeat of what you had yesterday.

That's not a big wire. It's the sheathing that surrounds the foot switch wiring.

[radioman]

Originally Posted by hawmarine

That's not a big wire. It's the sheathing that surrounds the foot switch wiring.

Thanks for checking. You have a dead short somewhere. Cracked batteries, burned up solenoid. I have nothing else to add. Good luck. I will check back to see what you find. Sorry to mislead you.

[yurtle]

Originally Posted by hawmarine

Honestly I didn't think any battery liquid got to the solenoid area because it was all coming out of the bottom of the battery. Guess it is possible. I bought the cart with out a hold down, honestly didn't even know there was one for it till you said so. I've never seen it on any golf cart I've seen.

You were trailering it, so wind may have blown it around. Not saying it did, as I don't know how fast you were traveling. As to the hold down, here's a pic of mine. It's hard to see, because I placed an HDPE support on top of it, for my ammeter shunt. The hold down is the black plastic that holds down all six batteries.

[hawmarine]

A lot of the wires running across the top are not normally there. They run underneath and are routed away from any of the high power lugs. I pulled them all up top when I was going through the wires and trouble shooting, and looking for shorts. Here is the whole compartment, need to reroute those wires back to the bottom. But I've went through this whole cart. Can't find one shorted wire, no rub throughs on wire, no marks from arcing on anybterminals or wires. I'm guessing the water in the compartment must have shorted it out.