Charging question?

[mad57]

Hi new to this cool site i have an 05 ez go and have recently had trouble with it charging, the chager will turn on needle goes to just before red than quickly back to 0 might charge for about 30 sec than keeps clicking back between 0 and just before red. I did check all wiring and did find some loose or rotten connections i redid them all clean and tight, i also tryed to isolate just 2 batterys and use a reg 12 volt charger 2 at a time, and still after that reg 36 charger still goes from 0 to just before red. any ideas?? are my battery going or is charger bad? thks new guy here.

[mad57]

heres a pic of the cart.

[Gonkulor]

Welcome to BGW Mad57

Cool looking cart.

I'll go ahead and ask you for the obligatory starting info so everyone can assist. What is your pack voltage and all your individual battery voltages.

[JohnnieB]

Welcome to BWG.

Sounds more like a charger issue than a cart issue, but you never know.....

Which charger do you have? There are many different ones out there.
A picture of the faceplate would probably do the trick.

Another helpful measurement would be putting you DVM across the battery packs main terminals (the ones going to motor and controller), then watch the voltage when you plug the charger into the cart.

What does it start at?
What does it read when the charger turns off?

[mad57]

Looks like i have to invest in a good voltage meter i will post info when i get readings, iam assuming that each battery has to be seperate from each other when doing voltage check individually? thks for having me glad to be here.

[Spawn]

You dont need to disconect them to get the readings. Just test each batterys Positive and Negative terminal.

Get a good Digital Multi Meter, its a must for electric carts, and you can use it everywhere.

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by mad57

Looks like i have to invest in a good voltage meter.........

You don't have to spend a fortune on it, unless you want to or have other uses.
A $10-20 one sold in a blister pack will do just fine for general troubleshooting & working on a cart.

You need to read individual battery voltage to two decimal places (IE: 6.37V)
and total battery pack voltage down to one decimal place (IE: 38.2V)
(The examples given are the fully charged voltages for 6v batteries and 36V packs respectively.)

As Spawn said, you don't have to disconnect the batteries, just measure from + to - on each one and then from + to - on the cables that don't connect to another battery. (Cables going to motor/controller might be labeled BL+ and BL-)

[mad57]

Ok i used my hf voltage meter and heres what i found main line in first battery is 6.0 than 6.0 than 5.84 than 5.84 than 5.84 than 5.84 the pack came in at 35.3.

[JohnnieB]

You've got some seriously discharged batteries. The plates sulphate at those voltage levels, so get them charged ASAP.
Borrow or rent a 36V charger, or charge two at a time with a 12V charger, or do whatever it takes, just get each of them charged up to 6.2V or greater so they don't continue self-destructing.

Since you have not told us what kind of charger you have, we do not know if it has a max current limit, the bad batteries are drawing too much current and it's shutting off like it was designed to do.
Or if the batteries are good and a bad control board (or something) in the charger is shutting it off prematurely.

My guess is that the charger is bad, but I'm just guessing.

If you can try your charger on a different cart and/or a different charger on your cart, that would tell us if the problem is in the charger or in your cart. (And might get the batteries charged)

[mad57]

its a powerwise ezgo textron 36 volt charger model 28115go4 serial 525379