Fire in the hole

[offthehook]

Ok what have I done? After using my cart reliably for several years, she was put in storage and not used for 9 months. Now she is one big mess. I have done a lot of work trying to get her running but I continue to have problems. This time I'm afraid its The Big One. Shortly after pulling out today, I noticed that I did not have full power (although she was fully charged). Within seconds I heard one 'pop' sound and then smelled something burning. I pulled it over and shut her off. Underneath I could see smoke bellowing out from what looks like a vent hole on the top of the transaxle housing where motor is mounted. What happened?

History - I had a flood at the house (cart was not affected by flood) and the cart was not used or maintained as house was being repaired. 9 months later and I have changed the solenoid, new batteries, new OBC and new relay on the charger. I have used the cart after doing this for a couple weeks without problems. The only issue I noticed was a surge of the motor for a second when I first pressed the pedal. I had posted that problem on this forum and just had removed the wiring for the MCOR cleaned them and reinserted. Now this.

Is it the big one?

[offthehook]

It a 2003 Club Car DS IQ lifted

[Speedchaser]

Or it could be a toasted controller. You will have to inspect closer. This question should answer your problem. If it was the axel then cart should still try to run, if it does not run at all probably pooped the controller. If that is the case you will want to try to find out why it popped.

Controllers hate sparking so you could have a loose connection somewhere.

[offthehook]

I tried it again and cart runs just at lower than normal speed. I did not want to run it very long as there was lots of smoke the first time and I don't want to do more damage. Something's not right.

[simple man]

Brushes may be stuck on the motor. Tap on the motor with a hammer and a block of wood and try again. if the cart runs Ok, you should pull the brush plate and clean everything. The only thing that will smoke out that vent is the motor!

[offthehook]

Thanks for the advice. speedchaser was right - I took alot of time to trace all wiring and i finally found it - one of the negative connectors pulled loose from the grounding bar. Once I re-connected it all seems fine. In fact my surge at first go went away as well. Let's hope no permanent damage as motor was a smoking.

[Speedchaser]

Nice, you lucked out by not frying anything else, yet at least.