EZGO TXT Battery Rack Rust

[BigWes]

After buying my first cart, I've had it for a couple of weeks now and finally crawled up underneath. I'm thinking I probably should have done that before I bought it, but it's mine now.

My battery rack has some rust on it. There are no soft spots and it's not rusted through. I'm leaning toward just replacing it instead of grinding out the rust, spraying rust killer and repainting. That however might change depending on the answers I get here.

So here goes...

Would I need to remove the body to change it out? If so, how labor intensive is that job?

Is the Rack bolt in or is welding required? I have no welder, so this is probably the biggest question.

Thanks for any help.

[Sir Nuke]

WES, YES the rack is bolted in. do you HAVE to remove the body....no, but depending on if the bolts are rusted in at the front (they are two large torx bolts)....it certainly would make the job a TON easier. and taking the body is easy.....take the top off. the body is held in with 2 bolts and a bunch of pop rivets. Just drill out the rivets, remove the bolts and its off. you can buy a body rivet kit for about 10 to 12 bucks at most cart shops or EZ-GO that contains all the rivets.

[jacannon]

The battery rack bolts in. I have read that you can replace it without taking the body off, but have not tried it. The torq head bolts in the front will be hard to get out. You can probably repair it in place.

[yellow36vpds]

When I got my project, the tray had rust... was still solid, so pressure wash what was loose grind the rest and coated with naval jelly type primer and then coated with rubber coating.

Of course, my body was already off and it was tons easier.

[lugster]

I used the sample kit from KBS, (very similar to POR 15, slightly cheaper), was not that big of a project at all. I also replaced the 2 front bolts (maybe the torx bolts?) with new SS bolts, lock washers and nuts, made it look brand new, good winter project, just follow the directions on the kit.

[yurtle]

Every carbon steel battery rack will develop rust. A good cleaning and proper coating will give you good service, with not a lot of effort. I used truck bed liner, with the thought that it would be more resistant to abrasion than undercoating. I expect to have to do this every five years or so. Since batteries need to be replaced from time to time, that's a good time to address it.

[coosa]

I just replaced a rack without removing the body, but I'm not sure how smart it was. Everything is easy except those torx bolts at the front, which they placed directly under the center of the body. I wound up having to drill out a couple of rivets at the front of the body in order to get to those torx bolts. If you don't have a good quality torx bit that will fit them, go buy one before you start. I ruined 2 China-made ones before finally finding a place that had a decent quality bit. A long cheater bar and plenty of penetrating oil and they finally came out. I threw them away and replaced them with grade 8 bolts and nuts. Good luck with it!