Bought this beauty today

[yurtle]

Could be the key switch or pedal microswitch, or the controller could be shot. I guess the FNR could also be bad. Any Molex or spade connectors could also be bad/dirty/corroded.

[coosa]

Originally Posted by yurtle

Could be the key switch or pedal microswitch, or the controller could be shot. I guess the FNR could also be bad. Any Molex or spade connectors could also be bad/dirty/corroded.

The wire coming out of the charging box that keeps the cart from being moved during charging is completely disconnected. I don't think that would affect the cart as far as running, but not 100% sure of that. No idea why they would disconnect it. I can't see any other obvious wiring problems.

JohnnieB, does your cart have a diode on the solenoid? My 2008 pds cart does not, and neither does this one. They have a resistor across the large terminals, but no diode across the small ones. I'm guessing a pds cart doesn't require one?

[yurtle]

The wire coming from the charger port is the reed switch, if it has one. It needs this to power up. It's possible they rewired it to get battery positive somewhere else. Is there another wire near it? If so they need to be connected.

[coosa]

Originally Posted by yurtle

The wire coming from the charger port is the reed switch, if it has one. It needs this to power up. It's possible they rewired it to get battery positive somewhere else. Is there another wire near it? If so they need to be connected.

Duh, maybe that's the whole problem. My resistor cart didn't have fancy contraptions like that.

Here's what it looks like by the charger port:




And here's what it looks like beside the controller on the other side of the cart:



The only wires they had hooked to the B+ was the main cable for the battery pack and the white wire to the charging port. I knew the other wire was required to keep the cart from moving during charging, but I didn't know it was required to power up the cart. Apparently whoever worked it on before didn't either.

This doesn't look like a plain old wire; I don't know what those connectors are called, but they are obviously different from regular wiring. Will a regular size 16 wire work, or do I need to order a special wire for the reed switch?

Thanks for catching that!

[yurtle]

That's a simple spade connector. The wire pulled loose. You can separate the male and female ends and either buy another connector, or strip and solder the wire to the connector, if it isn't too corroded. You can also simply cut the connector off and use a wire nut or solder the wires together. No real right or wrong way to do it.

[coosa]

Originally Posted by yurtle

That's a simple spade connector. The wire pulled loose. You can separate the male and female ends and either buy another connector, or strip and solder the wire to the connector, if it isn't too corroded. You can also simply cut the connector off and use a wire nut or solder the wires together. No real right or wrong way to do it.

Thanks again, yurtle. It looked like someone pulled on the wire and and it broke out of the connector on each end. I used a crimp connector and put it back together. It was close to dark, but I decided to test it anyway. It was sure a jury-rigged test. With the cart on blocks, I rigged up a battery pack on the ground beside it consisting of 2 worn out 12 volts marine batteries and 2 of the old batteries out of the cart. It all added up to an even 36 volts, so I thought that ought to be enough current for a test. I ran size 10 house wire over to the cart and put the terminals together with bolts and nuts, letting them just hang loose without touching anything.

I flipped it to Run mode, waited a couple of minutes, and then turned on the switch and put it in forward, touched the pedal and the wheels turned normally. If I had a battery pack handy, I could be riding soon!

Now that I know it will run, I plan to take my time and try to build it right. Gonna wait on the new battery rack before I put anything together. I'm planning to use a Jakes lift kit and get 22" AT tires, Scotty's 909 speed control package, a Jakes winch bumper and a 3000 lb Superwinch like I have on the other one. I don't like the looks of any of the rear beds I've seen, so I'll just make my own. The top is already off and will stay off. I'll rob the gun rack off the old resistor cart, and may put some kind of lights on it.

I'll camo the body, and do something with the seat and backrest. the seat is so bad that I may have to rebuild it. There's enough to do to take up all my spare time for a while, but I enjoy having a project.

Thanks to all for the help, and a special thanks to yurtle!

[yurtle]

You now have a good FNR, controller, and solenoid you can sell to help pay for your upgrades.

There's a "for sale/wanted" section here you can post it on.

[coosa]

Originally Posted by yurtle

You now have a good FNR, controller, and solenoid you can sell to help pay for your upgrades.

There's a "for sale/wanted" section here you can post it on.

Thanks for the idea. I had thought of doing that; hope there is more demand for PDS parts than resistor cart parts. I offered a bunch of resistor cart parts, including 2 good motors, at give-away price and nobody responded. Guess I was the last person running one.

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by coosa

The wire coming out of the charging box that keeps the cart from being moved during charging is completely disconnected. I don't think that would affect the cart as far as running, but not 100% sure of that. No idea why they would disconnect it. I can't see any other obvious wiring problems.

JohnnieB, does your cart have a diode on the solenoid? My 2008 pds cart does not, and neither does this one. They have a resistor across the large terminals, but no diode across the small ones. I'm guessing a pds cart doesn't require one?

Glad to hear it is running.

Sorry I couldn't stick around on BGW yesterday, had to take care of some items on SWMBO's Honey-Do list.

As for the diode, it protects the contacts of the mechanical switch that open to de-energize the solenoid from the voltage spike generated by the solenoid's coil due to the collapsing magnetic field. The PDS controller uses electronic switches to energize/de-energize the solenoid, so there are no contacts to damage by arcing. I suspect they provided some type of voltage spike protection for the electronic switches inside the PDS controller, but I'd still put a diode on the solenoid's coil terminals.

With the 909 package, you need the diode. With a DCX controller, the solenoid can be de-energized by mechanical switches that do need spike protection.

[coosa]

Thanks for that info, JohnnieB. I will order an extra diode for the 2008 cart. Even though a dealer customized it, I've found several things on it that were not best practices. I'm amazed at the number of lifted "hunting buggies" I see put together by dealers that still have a stock controller. They are a break down waiting to happen.