1990 ezgo 2 stroke won’t crank won’t run blows fuse????

[RandinJ]

Hey guys, so I have a 1990 ezgo 2 stroke, just bought it a few nights ago and have been struggling ever since. Started out with weak spark and not getting fuel. And a major back fire, and the exhaust pipe that attaches to motor getting supper hot. so I cleaned carb burned the exhaust in fire for a day and a half, I’ve replaced both crank seals, I’ve put new piston and rings in, and still was having backfire problems. So I did the hei conversion for spark and it got a little bit better so I dug a little deeper and pulled the reed valves back out and looked them over closely and found out they were pretty rough. Luckily I was able to track down a good used reed valve assembly and I finally got it to run somewhat smoothly but didn’t seem like I was getting the full horsepower from it and it was still getting hot. So pulled it bank in garage and took apart the fuel pump and it was nasty so cleaned it put it back on and ran even better but was still running hot hot. After 10 min of driving it back and forth on my street i just lost power, so pushed it back in the garage and found that the fuse coming off the solenoid had popped (ok easy fix I thought) well I was wrong. Put new fuse in and every time I hit the pedal it pops immediately and it won’t even turn over or nothing cart is just dead. What have I done? I’ve checked for ground issues I’ve checked everything. I’ve checked the micro switches but can’t find any way to really tell if either of the 3 on the cart are bad and causing this issue. I need some serious help I’m at a loss. Need to figure out why I’m getting so hot and why I now have no power and popping fuses left and right with no power to nothing. Solenoid doesn’t even click and put new one on and it still doesn’t click???????

[cart around]

Let's start with low power, and the HEI mod. Sometimes you have to switch the red, and blue wires coming from the pulsar to see which way runs best.

I can think of a few things to cause high heat.
1) Running really lean.
2) Clogged cooling fins.
3) Missing tin around the cylinder that directs air from the fan. You really do need that.
4) A failing voltage regulator that allows the generator to put out too much voltage.


Popping fuses immediately indicates a dead short. The tricky part is figuring out where.


Start with removing the positive wire from the small terminal of the solenoid. Replace the fuse, and step on the pedal. Nothing should happen.

If the fuse blows, you know that the short is in the start circuit, and is making its own ground. Then you would remove each switch from the circuit until you find the short.

If nothing happens, I would remove the solenoid completely, and then do some testing on the bench. Power it with some jumper wires to the small terminals. It should click, and then the large terminals should show continuity between each other.


Finally, if that checks out ok, reinstall it. Make sure that none of the hot wires are touching, any casing, or points that they shouldn't be touching.

[RandinJ]

Ok I’ll try those things, also what about micro switches? How do u know if there bad or good? When I turn key on with a test light I get a light on both posts of the switch, when I click closed it loses power to one side. To me this seems *** backwards but I could be wrong. Also one thing I was forgetting is that when I replace the fuse and hit the pedal it pulls the beep noise down and then blows fuse right away so you’d think I’m getting what I need up until the point I hit the gas pedal so I’m wondering if it isn’t the micro switch on the pedal

[cart around]

Key switch first: Where are you connecting the clip of your test light? It should be at a ground like the negative post of the battery.

Let's break down the circuit to see what each thing does.
There is a big cable from the positive battery to the big solenoid lug that is always hot.

A small wire branches from there to the fuse, and then to the hot side of the key switch. All of that is good, or else the fuse would blow at installation.

From the hot side of the key switch, another wire splits off to feed the buzzer switch. That too is good because it would again immediately blow the fuse at installation, or only in reverse.
Now it gets interesting.
From the keyed side of the switch, there is a wire that feeds the neutral switch located on the passenger side of the big reverse switch. That too is good. If it wasn't, the fuse would blow as soon as you turn on the key switch.


Coming from the neutral switch is a wire that feeds one side of the pedal switch. It's also good because of the same reason above.


Ok, from the switched side of the pedal switch to the small + side of the solenoid is a potential problem. There could be something in the switch making contact with the mount screw that shorts out when stepping on the pedal.

The more likely scenario is that the wire from the pedal switch to the solenoid is shorting somewhere. Check the connections at both ends for contact, and check the insulation along its entire length for rubbing.


If all of that checks good, I would then suspect the solenoid. That's why I said to remove, and test it earlier.

You also need to have a continuous duty golf cart solenoid. A car starter solenoid will last about 10 minutes.

[RandinJ]

So I just figured it out. Your walk through helped me a great deal. Everything was good all the way to the solenoid and when I got to the solenoid I got to wondering what the other 2 wires were for that were on the same little terminal so I did a process of elimination and one of the 2 ended up being the blue wire to the old original coil that I’m no longer using but some how it grounded itself out and was shorting the solenoid out and popping the fuse. Also with the hot exhaust issue I also figured out and it was the 2 wires on the hei module were backwards causing a drowning circuit I flipped those 2 around and she now runs like a raped ape and smooth as can be. Thank you so much for the help