1983 ezgo 3 stroke. Electrical issues.

[cart around]

I would test it before replacing it.

[Sparks5155]

Bought a new one while I was in town, started right up. Thanks a lot!

[Mooncarter]

Cable, switch, or solenoid?

[Sparks5155]

The cable. I figured since 12.5 volts was getting through the circuit, that there was no way the cable could be the issue. I thought something was shorting out. Good call on the cable. How do you check that?

[cart around]

Originally Posted by Sparks5155

The cable. I figured since 12.5 volts was getting through the circuit, that there was no way the cable could be the issue. I thought something was shorting out. Good call on the cable. How do you check that?

To test it, I would have connected my jumper cables in parallel with the positive battery cable. You actually jumped it to the wrong side of the solenoid, but it didn't matter because you had already told me what was wrong in your first post.


You stepped on the pedal, and the solenoid chattered. That meant that your entire control circuit was working to activate the solenoid. That eliminated the fuse, the key switch, and microswitches.


You said that you had already cleaned all of the grounds, and connections that looked sketchy. That told me two things. It wasn't a ground problem, and the wiring was old enough to show some corrosion in other places. It was the hidden corrosion causing the problem.


You said that you had 12.5 volts everywhere until you stepped on the pedal.

That meant that the positive cable was able to show voltage until it was under load, but it wasn't capable of carrying the amperage to turn the starter, or hold the solenoid in the activated position. The control circuit splits off at the positive cable, and both circuits were being affected.


Previous experience told me that the positive cable has been known to grow hidden corrosion. Yours is not the first cart to do this.


It also helped that part of my job is to troubleshoot electrical problems for a major airline using just a few sentences written in the logbook by the pilots.

EDIT: One more thing. The only real difference between an 83, and the 84-87 carts is the exhaust. 88 had a bigger carburetor, and different muffler. Everything else is the same.

[Sparks5155]

Well i sure appreciate the help and I'm glad i Joined the forum. Excited to learn from the people who are willing to teach. Cheers!

[krs_med]

I would bet you have a bad cable. They may look good but you would be surprised how corroded it can be it you stripped the insulation off. You can test it with your DVM. Just remove it and put your meter in the Ohms setting. Hope this may help. Replace both positive and ground cable. Sure both are corroded. Also clean your ground location really well. Many issues can be related to a bad ground. Good luck.