98 Club Car Electric Selonoid Question

[Dinger]

This situation seemed strange to me. Working on a 1998 CC electric. Selonoid was burned at the large contacts. Melted the plastic body around the contact. But the strange thing to me was how the selonoid was wired. I had checked the sticky on the home page here that showed 2 types of wiring for '85 thru '03 carts. The wiring for carts with solid state controller had a resistor and a diode wired to the selonoid. The wiring for carts without a solid state controller had no resistor or diode at all. Now comes the question. This cart does not have the solid state controller but does have the resistor and diode on the selonoid. I replaced the bad selonoid and left the resistor and diode in place. Overnight the cart lost most of it's charge on a new set of batteries and after being recharged the selonoid locked up in the closed position all the time. Appeared to be overheated but not melted. The cart would move forward when placed in F or backward when placed in R even if the pedal was not pushed down. Checked the "sway arm" (the speed controller arm) and the micro switch down there with it and that was all fine. Tapped on the top of the selonoid, with the batteries disconnected, and it released and started to work properly again. Reconnected the selonoid without the resistor and diode (according to wiring diagram) and the cart started to work properly. Plugged in the charger for a few minutes and it worked properly although I didn't let it go all the way to auto shut off. Unplugged it and the cart still worked fine. But the owner says the cart had run fine for 4 years before with those resistor and doide in place. Is there a third wiring diagram that shows a non solid state controller cart that has resistor and diode on the selonoid? Seems very odd to me. Thanks for opinions.

[shadowman]

they should have nothing to do with the soleniod sticking and no i don,t beleive its wired any different if you have a resistor/diode on it...................

[OLD MEC]

The wiring for carts without a solid state controller would be a 36 volt system with large coil resistors equipped cart. Melting normally is caused by loose or high resistance ( poor connections ) cable contacts?
The function of diode and resistor is to lengthen the life of large contacts and pull in coil on solenoid and I have seen used on either type of speed controls.
The solenoid you installed could either be defective, installed incorrectly ( should be mounted in vertical position ) or wired incorrectly ( which would cause overheating because of being in closed position all the time ) and could draw batterys down? You have a problem that must be solved if cart can be moved with key in off position?

[Dinger]

Thanks for the info guys. I did find one of the large wires to the new selonoid was getting quite warm. I replaced the end and it no longer does that. I guess I'm now just wondering if the resistor and diode are necessary on the selonoid since it seems to work fine now without them. Do they have anything to do with the charging system or controling the automatic charger? I don't think so but don't want to be missing something.

[shadowman]

you really don,t need them there are lots of carts running without them but it is better to have them there........................