Yamaha DR2E17 Cart not charging need to get charger to see the batteries and start

[hrk]

My father has a Yamaha cart 48 V, apparently he had plugged the charger into a wall outlet that was run off a timer. That Timer didn't allow the cart to charge at all and he wasn't aware, eventually running the cart to zero power.

The cart when plugged in will not charge, batteries are about a year old, the charger just flashes. Could it be that the batteries are so low that the charger isn't sensing it's connected and won't initiate charge which is what I suspect, will take a MM up to see what the whole pack has, read somewhere that the AC charger needs 25 to 30 v to crank

He's in another city and I'll be going up this weekend, question is, if that's the case can I connect on of the 8V batteries from my cart, fully charged to the Yamaha with cables and get the charger to see some voltage, or maybe replace one of his where the charger connects to the pack. Obviously jumping the pack to get Voltage up would be easier, or is there another trick.

It's not his cart, it's a neighbor who passed away, they left the cart there and will eventually come for it, so I'm not dropping a grand on batteries, it apparently wasn't cared for or charged before since the guy was in the hospital for several months.



Battery Pack - looks like the +/- connect to different batteries from the charger? Not sure, spent time on my DS for years, not done work on Yamaha as of yet.

Also have a battery tender but it's 12V from the motorcycle, could it be used to slightly charge the 8v batteries that are on the end of the pack where the charger connects, if that's the issue.

Looking for solutions to get the charger to start charging.

[hrk]

Charger



Lights - all three lit, flashing

[Volt_Ampere]

Start by measuring the battery voltages. If they are dead, the charger won't come on. You need to get a small charge into each battery to get it started. You can use a car charger but not a trickle charger. (would take forever) A minute boost with a 12V charger will get each battery up high enough to get the pack to charge if the charger is any good. Don't leave the car charger on for long as it will overheat trying to charge an 8V battery.

[cyberphox]

Having the exact same issue...let the batteries run down and now charger will power on but won't initiate charge...I have 4 12v batteries, would I just try using a car charger to do one at a time?

[ojo]

Yes, charge them with a 12v charger for some time individually ( no need to disconnect anything of the battery pack ).

[nickdalzell1]

Ah, yes, a 'Dead Battery Special'. This is about the time of year they all start rolling in. I will never in my right mind understand the point of these ridiculous 'smart chargers' that can't even do the job of charging batteries properly. They're overcomplicated as hell, unrepairable, and are solutions in search of problems. When they were just transformer, capacitor, two diodes, ammeter and an electromechanical timer (think 1970s) this was NEVER a problem.

Sadly, all the makes have started using these stupid dumb throwaway chargers that can't even do their intended job right. Yahama in particular has actually succeeded in making a worse charger than the PowerWise QE. Those things time out within three hours of charging, or go 'click clunk!' and refuse outright even if there's voltage that should be enough, or blow pretty blue or grey smoke from the fan area. They literally fail by looking at them funny. It's a bit of irony that I got four vintage Lesters from the '70s (with glass fuses too) that I use to 'bring back' all of these dead battery specials. If they kept using that type of charger we'd be able to work on far more important stuff.

With lithium getting more and more popular it's gonna be scary to deal with dead battery specials using lithium, as charging a lithium that's run dead will likely result in a pretty impressive fire.