Charging questions for a new owner

[dnkskart]

Last week I picked up a 1999 Club Car 48 volt DS to use around the neighborhood and campground. Wife has fibromyalgia and can’t get around as well as she used to, so she can use the cart to visit grandkids a couple blocks from home.

I’m trying to understand the charging system and make sure it’s working correctly. The guy I got it from had just put 6 new batteries in it and said he replaced the battery interconnect cables, but not the positive and negative ones. Looks like he may have used auto battery cables as they are all appear to be too long. The negative cable does pass through the OBC. It has the lever for shifting to reverse.

Here’s what I’ve done so far using comments/suggestions from the forum. I had noticed after getting the cart that the charger was not turning off after 16 hours.

1. Sunday, I drove it for 15 to 20 minutes to put a bit of usage on the
batteries. I put it on the charger about 4PM. At 9pm it was still
around 10 amps.
2. Monday morning around 6:30, I checked and the charger was still
putting out about 10 amps. Left the charger on all day.
3. When I got home Monday afternoon, charger was still about 8 amps and
pack voltage was 55.4. After 24 hours, the timer had not turned the
charger off.
4. After dinner, I pulled all the battery cables and cleaned the ends with a
brass brush. The amperage almost immediately started to taper off
when I reconnected the charger.
5. Around 9pm, I checked and the pack voltage was 58.5 and the amps
had dropped to around 5, so it was looking better.
6. Tuesday morning around 5:45, pack voltage was 60.4 and charger was
still sitting about 7 or 8 amps. I checked again around 6:30 and it was
around 5 amps. I unplugged the charger so I don’t cook the batteries
and left for work.
At this point, I’m thinking there’s a problem with the OBC. Cleaning the cable ends definitely helped. Are there any other connections that I should clean up that might help more?

Any suggestions for what to try next? I want to be able to plug in in and forget it until we’re ready to ride again.

As soon as I get the charging issue resolved, I’ve got heavy duty rear springs, fold out rear seat, new windshield and a 5 panel rearview mirror ready to go on for the first mods.

Thanks,
Dickie

[shadowman]

any chance you can get your hands on another charger? one you know works and shuts off to try on your cart........at this point your problem could be in either one so you want to narrow it down.......its possible the problem is in the charger.........................................

[dnkskart]

I forgot to mention that when the charger is connected, the amp meter drops to 0 after a few seconds for the diagnositcs, then comes back up.
Does that help eleminate the charger?
Dickie

[shadowman]

Originally Posted by dnkskart

I forgot to mention that when the charger is connected, the amp meter drops to 0 after a few seconds for the diagnositcs, then comes back up.
Does that help eleminate the charger?
Dickie

no it dosn,t.........can you call the person you got it from and ask them if they know if anything was done to the charger.......a lot of times an OBC will go bad where it won,t let the charger turn on and instead of repairing the problem people will open the charger and bypass the low voltage sensor ( relay ) to get the charger to work however doing this the charger will no longer shut off.......i,m saying this only because you just bought it and who knows what was done to it.......................so if you can get a known working charger and it does the same thing you know the problem is in the cart ( OBC ) but if it shuts off than you know its the charger..................i have seen plenty of 98,s and 99,s do this and almost 100% of the time OBC was bad but that dosn,t mean yours is.........................................easiest way to determine is to try a good charger if you can........................

[dnkskart]

OK, maybe I'm trying to gain enough knowledge to be dangerous, but after more reading and studing schematics, it looks like I should be able to eleminate either the OBC or charger by:
1. with charger hooked up and charging, and pack voltage above 58.3, if i unplug the fuse in the grey wire behind the charger receptable, the charger should turn off. Actually, for this test I guess it really wouldn't matter what the pack voltage is. It seems that the grey wires job in life is to turn the charger on and off by providing a ground to the relay.
If the charger does not turn off, the problem would be in the charger.
If the charger does turn off, the problem is in the OBC.
Shouldn't the fact that the charger relay clicks and amps drop to 0 for a couple of seconds when running the diagnostics right after connecting be an indication that the charger is working properly.
I'm trying to come up with a plan 'B' in case i can't find another charger I can borrow for a couple of days.
OBTW, I've been an aircraft mechanic for 40 plus years, so I'm pretty comfortable working around/with this kind of stuff.
Please don't take this as being argumentaive or anything, I'm just trying to figure this system out so I can keep the cart running...
Thanks again.
Dickie

[Roscoe98]

Sounds like the charger needs some TLC, I would send it to th Zivan shop in Sacto, they are the only ones that I know who fix it. Be sure to tell them which batteries you have.