Unique Charger problem

[cheapjeep2]

I've isolated this to the charger as I have two chargers and two club cars to test with.... The charger regardless of cart, will error out, the yellow light on the dash will come on, the transformer will stop humming, and the amp meter needle will be right on 75amps, but the charger is not on, pull the charger from the carts, and the needle stays there for about 20 secs then drops back to zero. Also regardless of the charge on the batteries the charger stays at 75amp and will never go down and not shut off. Is this a diode problem in the charger?


Any ideas?

[shadowman]

i have never seen a charger go to 75 amps.................25 is the highest i have seen.........so its just this charger doing the same thing on 2 different carts? are they 36 or 48 volt carts.............i don,t think this is a diode issue anyways................has anyone took this charger apart for any reason? also can you plug the charger in and see what pack voltage says while its charging....yes this is an odd one..................do you have a wiring diagram so you can check cable and wire routing?................sounds like we may have a doozey here.............................................. ...

[cheapjeep2]

Ok first my brain was set on seven but I meant 15 amps not 75...

Yes, charger doe sit on two 48v carts. I have my charger on the other cart right now charging the batteries so making 100% sure that the subject cart is ok internally......

I just used the club car charger manual and completely went through the entire test procedures and test wise there is nothing wrong with the cart, diodes, and ALLL components test ok per the manual.... so I am stumped. I will try it again on my cart and see if it does it again.... this is really odd....

[cheapjeep2]

Ok, so now get this, I've had my charger on the subject cart. It's just about 9 amps, does the self test, turns off turns back on and goes back to 9 amps. I take the suspect charger and plug it into suspect cart and the suspect charger does exactly the same thing as mine, in others words fine.

Plug my charger back into my car where the batters are charge, it comes on to about 8 amps, and quickly falls down to 5 amp and goes into the final cycle, does the same after the self test. As it should...

Now I take the SUSPECT charger and plug into my cart, I should get exactly as I did just above, but the charge goes to the 15 amp setting, I can here the self test kick in, but the ammeter does not move and the transformer does not totally shut off....

So I don't WTF is going on....

[shadowman]

since the only thing in the cart that has anything to do with charging ( the OBC ) and since a lot of times when they go it makes no sense i would lean towards the OBC going bad......... the odds are 75% to 25 % your problem is in the OBC somewheres..........check your wires coming off the rear of the charge receptical and give the grey wire with yellow fuse holder a tug make sure it dosn,t pull out but i don,t see what else it can be if batteries are good and cables are hooked up right and ends are clean and tight....................................

[cheapjeep2]

Originally Posted by shadowman

since the only thing in the cart that has anything to do with charging ( the OBC ) and since a lot of times when they go it makes no sense i would lean towards the OBC going bad......... the odds are 75% to 25 % your problem is in the OBC somewheres..........check your wires coming off the rear of the charge receptical and give the grey wire with yellow fuse holder a tug make sure it dosn,t pull out but i don,t see what else it can be if batteries are good and cables are hooked up right and ends are clean and tight....................................

Wires are clean and tight, no issues, there, will check the receptical.. I belief the OBC is bad for two reasons. 1: When I disconnect power, there isn't the OBC reset like you expect when you plug it back in. And 2. The batteries appear to be over charging. With the ammeter at 9 amps still, the ammeter batteries are showing at 52 volts with the charger unplugged

[shadowman]

batts may go up to 58 volts or so while charging........and if your charger isn,t sutting off thats another sign of OBC going bad now on the other hand i have seen amp gage stay at 5 amps overnight..................if you start getting the rotten egg smell and or your batts start boiling away unplug it and change the OBC.........................................

[cheapjeep2]

Ok, so get this... I take my cart for a quick drive, put it on my charger, functions as expected, charges for few minutes, slowly winds down and shuts off, litterally take it off of the charger when it stops and plug in the suspect charger, which according to ALL of the test procedures works just fine, plug in the suspect charger and it instantly goes to 15 amps doesn't do the self test and sits there. I am now starting to believe I may be dealing with two possible problems, something in the charger and something in the OBC.

[Frizbgolf]

I would lean toward there being a problem in the suspect charger. From what you have posted one charger is working correctly and charging as it is supposed to, but when you plug in the suspect it is staying at 15A and not self diagnosing. That would lead me to think that the OBC is fine it is in the wiring on the suspect charger. Check all connections in the charger and make sure they are good, no broken wires etcc.....

[cheapjeep2]

Originally Posted by Frizbgolf

I would lean toward there being a problem in the suspect charger. From what you have posted one charger is working correctly and charging as it is supposed to, but when you plug in the suspect it is staying at 15A and not self diagnosing. That would lead me to think that the OBC is fine it is in the wiring on the suspect charger. Check all connections in the charger and make sure they are good, no broken wires etcc.....

Well, this has been a hard one but have now determined that there are two problems, the OBC is bad as well as the ammeter in the charger.