EZGO TXT 2001 Will Run for Ten Minutes and then Only Idle

[RyanChristman24Forge]

Hi All,

I have had quite an adventure with my 2001 Ezgo txt lifted cart.

I initially had fuel in the oil, corrected that with a new carb.

Now i have a situation where the cart will start, run strong, but when it gets warmed up it will bog down and only idle.

There is a fuel smell as well after it warms up.

It also backfires if you go WOT.

This all makes me think SPARK ISSUE - the carb is new, fuel pump is new, all new vacuum lines, and YES veterans I have adjusted the lash to .004.

Am I heading in the right direction thinking I need a new ignitor? I put a new coil on super early this spring and do have spark on both plugs (blue spark on BPR4ES NGK's)

The coil was an aftermarket bought on Amazon for $ 50 bucks, and the ignitor which is original gets pretty hot after running a while.

I am II that close to just calling the stealership to come get it and fix it as I have spent a LOT of time trying to go through it.

So do I dump the $ 100 on a new Ignitor?

Thanks for your input - and if there are any Passaic County NJ mechanics out there that want to stop in and fix er up let me know!

Ryan

[jeffrun]

your ignitor could be the problem,getting hot and shutting down. This could be caused by the aftermarket coil. Take loose two small wires on coil, measure the resistance,readings should between 4-5 ohms.any thing less,you would be drawing to much current thru ignitor. If coil checks ok,then measure your voltage across battery when running, reading should be 13.5-14.5V ,if its 17-19v your voltage regulator is not working,and that can cause ignitor overheating.

[RyanChristman24Forge]

Thanks Jeff,

I do have an electrical testing kit - i will have to play around with it a bit to make sure i have it set to the right detection mode, etc.

When I measure across the two points on the coil, wold i need to be running? or would I just need to have my ignition key turned on?

Thanks for the info on the Voltage Regulator - that doesnt get hot thank god - and its a lot cheaper than a new ignitor.

I will test tonight depending on your responses.

Ryan

[jeffrun]

your ignition and motor should be turned off when checking coil resistance. On the voltage reg. its the high voltage that would overheat ignitor,not overheat the regulator.

[RyanChristman24Forge]

Results!

So I tested the coil across the two terminals with everything disconnected and I get .7 OHMS - I tested the Pulsar Coil and I get 20 OHMS -- the Pulsar seems to be within spec, but the coil seems to be pretty low.

I already ordered a new ignitor so I guess I will be replacing that AND the coil as soon as they arrive and will post the results once I get them on.

Cart still starts and runs just fine, but craps out when it gets warm.

Ryan

[jeffrun]

yes, that .7 ohms way to low,would draw to much current thru ignitor,get hot fast. Did you crack your gas cap on fuel tank, to make sure its vented properly,see if it makes a difference. keep us posted.

[RyanChristman24Forge]

Just keeping you all posted.

I did try the gas cap trick, but the cart will still only idle.

I bought and replaced the ignitor, and sanded down the ground to frame to bare metal. It seems to run WORSE now with the new ignitor.

I have a new coil on the way (i replaced mine a few months ago with a cheapo from EBAY and I get the impression it is a piece of crap so I ordered an allegedly better one from a more reputable place)

So, the initial symptom of the cart running awesome and dying out after ten minutes now has me in a position of where it wont even leave the garage.... just idles for a few seconds and then i have WET plugs. Pull both plugs and have a spark on both of them....

My next plans are to replace the coil with the one that is on its way, and after that push it down a hill :)

[Mazak1131]

Mine did that it was compression.

[my1423]

In my opinion i would lean to an ignition issue.
Have seen this same issue on street bikes in many forms.
Usually it was something electrical ie bad ground or component but have seen a couple mechanical issues that baffled me the first time.

A few the timing was 180 off. Someone did some work and did it wrong.
Customer quote!
They would run at full throttle by push starting but would die once the rpms dropped.

Rpms advanced the mechanical advancer on the timing and brought it close enough to run. People would never believe me when they picked them up.

Few that really caused diagnosis issues Ended up being a sheared flywheel key from a loose flywheel nut. Timing would be on at an idle but under acceleration it would float and act all sorts of weird. A single cylinder engine usually just dies but with multi cylinder units running dual coils it can still run and act weird since there is a spark event every rotation.

Pull a plug and put a long pencil or piece of hose into the cylinder until you can feel the piston. Slowly hand turn the motor over to top dead center with the item removed and use the hose ect to tell it is there. Dont break anything off in there be careful.
Then check the timing marks and make sure they are close to displaying tdc when the piston is actually at tdc.




I have also seen cars that are clearance engines where the timing belt lost teeth and jumped time that would act like this.
I have not worked on these little 2 cylinder engines so i do not know if this applies.

[RyanChristman24Forge]

I wanted to close this out so anyone else with a similar issue would find results.

After testing the coil and finding only .7 OHMS between the leads I ordered and replaced that. The cart now runs good and doesnt die out after ten minutes.

That said, I also replaced the ignitor (it was getting really hot after running for a few minutes)

So in trying to make my cart run better back in April I bought a CHEAP coil on Ebay and that is what caused so many of my headaches with my cart. The new coil was bad, which lead me to thinking I had a flurry of other issues.

So, now i have a new carb (cheapo from ebay so I will be rebuilding the original and putting that back on), new coil, new plugs, new in-line fuse(between the solenoid and the coil), a new ignitor and a LOT more knowledge of how the EZ-GO cards are put together.

Buy yourself an inexpensive electronics testing kit, listen to the guys on here when it comes to your Valve Lash, and your OHMS testing (for the coil, and pulsar coil) and you will come to your conclusions.

I spent $ 300 in parts overall, and avoided having to spend a minimum of
$ 500.00 to have someone come and pick up the cart and probably feed me a line of jibberish!