48 to 12 volt reducer

[markymo]

I have a 2003 CCDS IQ. Hooking up my 5 wire reducer I have a huge spark when attaching the neg to battery post, and my green wire to ignition OFF as constant 48 volt. Im frustrated!!!! I have the Yellow wire going to beginning of battery 1. The Black wire going to neg in battery 6. The green not yet connected because of the issue, it shows 48 volts to it not even hooked up to the OFF side of the ignition? I'm thinking I have a bad reducer? Shouldn't the green ignition wire be at 0 till the key is turned on? Then, have not been there yet but Red will go to my fuse block and Blue memory is not being use as of this point. If you want the FULL version read on if not, if you can just answer my question I'd greatly appreciate the help! In tow mode I disconnected negative than positive, mounted the reducer to the front of cart by the front shock towers, I ran the positive (yellow) to battery 1, than negative (black) to battery 6, than I hooked up the positive wire and cable, than went to hook up negative and huge spark occurs, not a tiny arc but BIG SPARK occurred. So I with the volt meter I checked, there is 50.6 volts going to the reducer in the yellow wire, out of the green not even hooked up yet, also reading 50.7 volts. And that's where I'm puzzled. If that wire goes to the ignition OFF shouldn't it read 0 till the key is switched to the ON position? The Red, Black and Blue all showing 0 too. called the company , operator said it could be a faulty unit so they are overnighting me one, so I thought I'd join the group as see if you all had any thoughts? This is my first cart and second project. Thanks for reading!

[Tom47]

As far as the spark, that is normal when hooking up the voltage reducer.

Hook it up as indicated and check that you have a nominal 12 volt output from the reducer. You will need to have all battery terminals connected and have the run/tow in run mode in order to confirm the 12 volt output.

I believe everything is fine, but I was wrong one time before that I can remember.

[markymo]

I’ll hook it back up, when I get home this afternoon and see what happens. I didn’t want to damage ignition switch.

[Volt_Ampere]

The reducers I have in my two Yamaha carts both spark when I hook up the 48V to them if they have been disconnected long enough for the capacitors to discharge. It scares you when you don't expect it but I've gotten used to that. I unplug the fused wire at the fuse when I'm working on the cart and I put the battery cables on first and then plug in the wire with the fuse. It still sparks but at least then I know that the spark is coming from the reducer and not something else.

[scottyb]

You can use a pre-charge resistor to load the capacitors in the reducer. Just hand hold it between the battery and the final main connection for a minute then connect without the spark.

[Tom47]

Good advice! I've been a sparky (electrician) for 58 years.

They don't bother me much, but then I don't have much sense either!

[Volt_Ampere]

I just pucker up and plug in the fuse. :-)

[scottyb]

The resistor works well for those opposed to sparks. The rest of you seasoned techs let er rip! Vvwap!

[markymo]

Thanks for the replies to my issue. I don't know if maybe it was grounding itself out or not. So, I took the mounting bracket off I made and mounted in different location, up front. So, Like Tom and a couple others said, I hooked everything up. What I did, was disconnect the plug, then attached all all wires then snapped the plug back together. I think a did hear little pop but no big scary sparks. Yellow reading 50.6, Green 50.6 with ignition on and 0.00 with ignition off, Red 12.6 that runs to the fuse panel. Going to finish my lights, horn, and accessory power now. Thanks again!! Jus an added question Q: Will or can the bottom be in contact with metal? Can I ground itself ou since this is an electric cart and not gas? There is a rubber seal that runs around the edges.

[Volt_Ampere]

Most reducers have the metal shell isolated from all of the electrics. If that's the case, then the shell can be grounded. Mine are both mounted to the frame with bolts so the cases are grounded. All of my electrics are isolated from the frame as they must be.