1993 Marathon 36v motor "clicking" and shaking

[mrphilf]

Was out running the cart last night up some pretty steep grades. At one point it stopped completely at full throttle as the hill was just too steep for it to pull. Had the wife and a kid get off the cart and attempted to restart climbing the hill with less weight. As soon as I pushed the gas pedal down smelled a slight burn odor and the cart acted as if it was in neutral, no action in either forward or reverse. Towed it home. Went out and checked a few things did a visual inspection for burned wires. With key on and cart in forward or reverse solenoid clicks and the motor kinda shakes weakly and makes a clicking sound. Cart feels like it is thinking about going but it doesnt.

Burned the motor? Any ideas?

[Gonkulor]

Good job bud. You smoked a motor! I hadn't heard of that much. If your on flat and level ground trouble shooting it now I would access you smoked it.

[mrphilf]

Originally Posted by Gonkulor

Good job bud. You smoked a motor! I hadn't heard of that much. If your on flat and level ground trouble shooting it now I would access you smoked it.

And good job to you bud on your new and creative use of the word access. Perhaps next time you may want to assess rather than access. Just saying, if you want to throw out comments like "good job bud" you might want to at least try using correct wording in the post...

[JohnnieB]

Need to have access to more information to assess possible problem(s)

Is it a resistor cart or does it have a solid state controller?

What is the battery pack voltage?

Is the axle spinning, but hub not turning?

[mrphilf]

Originally Posted by JohnnieB

Need to have access to more information to assess possible problem(s)

Is it a resistor cart or does it have a solid state controller?

What is the battery pack voltage?

Is the axle spinning, but hub not turning?

Cart has a stock Curtis controller
Battery pack voltage at charging terminal 37.2v
I havent checked to see if an axle is spinning...

However I just did a load test on the batteries and one of the six is testing at absolutely zero under load but reads good with no load. Checked water level and it was a smidge low, so I filled it up.

I also have a battery meter installed on the cart. When I push the accelerator the meter drops to zero and if I plug in the charger it instantly maxes out.

I'm now guessing I smoked a battery...but is that in addition to a burnt motor? Should the cart run at least somewhat on 5 batteries?

[camaroluvz28]

If you have 0 volts in one battery cart will not move at all due to bad cell...thats where I would start....

[simple man]

Originally Posted by camaroluvz28

If you have 0 volts in one battery cart will not move at all due to bad cell...thats where I would start....

+ 1 All it takes is one bad cell in one battery to bring your cart to a halt! I would see if a cart shop in your area can sell you a battery that's about the same age and rating as your bad one. Don't buy one new battery! It will quickly become an old battery!

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by mrphilf

Cart has a stock Curtis controller
Battery pack voltage at charging terminal 37.2v
I havent checked to see if an axle is spinning...

However I just did a load test on the batteries and one of the six is testing at absolutely zero under load but reads good with no load. Checked water level and it was a smidge low, so I filled it up.

I also have a battery meter installed on the cart. When I push the accelerator the meter drops to zero and if I plug in the charger it instantly maxes out.

I'm now guessing I smoked a battery...but is that in addition to a burnt motor? Should the cart run at least somewhat on 5 batteries?

I suspect that would be a Curtis 1204-0xx, 275A controller with 0-5k throttle input and a 16VDC under-voltage cutback.

If the pack voltage drops below 16V under load and jumps back up to 37.x when load is removed, the controller might be shutting down and recovering rapidly, causing motor to chatter.

The only worth the battery that drops to zero under load has, is core value.

If you remove the bad battery from the pack, making it a 30V pack rather than 36V, the cart should run.
Not very fast or far, but it will move enough to verify the controller and motor are okay.

The 1204 controller is rated 24-36V, but 30V might not be enough to activate solenoid.
It probably will, but if it doesn't click, that is likely to be the reason.

Like simple man suggested, either get a used battery same age/rating as bad one, or replace all 6.

[mrphilf]

Well, I found access to 6 new batteries, put them in and we are rolling again!

JohnnyB - thanks for asking me about the battery voltage or I may not have thought to do the load test and started ripping out the motor instead

[Gonkulor]

Good times. I must apologies for my improper assess of the situation. Roll on friend