1984 ezgo cart wont go up hill

[eveinhayfork]

my dad has a 1984 ezgo that he uses around his property. new batteries were bought in 2017. I service his a couple times a year. (Maybe they need service more frequently? i don't know) recently the drivers top side of the battery box rotted and the pack of batteries dropped close to the ground and the cart stopped working. I disconeceted the batteries and drew a diagram as to how everything was hooked up so it would be hooked back up correctly. Our neighbor welded a new battery box. the batteries were hooked back up. the cart seemed to be fine as i drove it in a couple circles. the next day i come home to my dad changing out a eye on the neg main feed. he got in it and drove it. then I took it down our hill. When i went to come up the hill the cart would totally lose power , get it back , lose popwer, get it back , then lost it.
the following day I put it in tow mode and bring it back up the hill.
the neighbor checks the batteries. one battery was dead. after utubing a little i isolated the dead battery put a charge on it and it took.( before I did this I inspected the battery terminals to make sure thay were all tight. One terminal on a different battery had like a burnt round piece of mettal preventing the terminal to be tightened down all the way. it was vary loose. I replaced the nut.)
After the one battery was charged I hought I would put the cart on the charger. ....Now the charger was not turning on. I ended up trailering my cart and hauling it in to a cart guy. He looked at the batteries and said they were all hooked up correctly. Then he plugged one of his carts into my charger and it was fine. Then he plugged my cart into my charger and it was fine. ( I'm deffentily not a problem solver of commen sense when it came to trying another recepticle before I hauled my cart off.)
So I bring my cart home thinking everything is fine. My dad took it down the hill parked it. Then I took it down and came back up for something and noticed it was really lagging on power to come up the hill. Then coming back up the hill a second time it was really struggling to come up........I had to run out this morning and didnt say anything to my dad. I came back and he took the cart down the hill. It struggled to come back up amd actually stopped working at this point.
one thing the cart guy said was "looks like the eye your dad replaced is a little loose but it looks ok." ........Maybe it needs to be replaced by someone other than a 90 year old that is really trying to still do everything.

[eveinhayfork]

I should have inspected the cart before I wrote this earlier. I lifet up the seat to look a t the batteries and one of the posts on a battery is melted off.

[jakesnake27]

to BGW

You can repair any melted terminals you have by using using the method in this link: http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/batte...nal-repair.php

Afterwards, make sure all connections are clean and tight.

Also, it's good practice to check the terminals when you check and add water to the batteries.

[bronsonj]

over tightening a post can cause a melted post just as easily as a loose connection can cause a melted post.

The metal post is held in place by lead. Tighten it too much and the lead will let it turn a little. Then it isn't making good contact so it gets hot and melts the lead (probably the burnt round piece of metal you saw).