2004 Club Car DS, maintenance and must have upgrades?

[hotwls13]

Alright I purchased a 2004 Club Car DS for $900. Runs good, batteries (4x12v) are 1yr old. I pick it up Saturday.

I don’t want to go all out on this cart. Just plan to drive it around the neighborhood and teach my daughter to drive (before she gets in a real car).

What should I do to this to keep it in running condition? I’m thinking new battery cables, check distilled water, clean up corrosion etc?

My daughter wants to paint it red so we will probably do that.

Any other simple and inexpensive must have upgrades???

Thanks for any input. Looking forward to working on it.

[Mooncarter]

New 2 gauge cables is a great idea.

You will probably want lights. You will need a 48 to 12 volt reducer for this. If is has a factory reducer that is not 48 to 12 volt, get rid of it. I would also install a fuse box for any future accessories such as radio, turn signals, etc.

[hotwls13]

Originally Posted by Mooncarter

New 2 gauge cables is a great idea.

You will probably want lights. You will need a 48 to 12 volt reducer for this. If is has a factory reducer that is not 48 to 12 volt, get rid of it. I would also install a fuse box for any future accessories such as radio, turn signals, etc.

Ok. Most of the “cable kits” I’m seeing are 4ga. Is that good enough? What size are factory cables? Guessing 6ga?

Yep I want to drive it at night if needed. I will look into light kits. Hopefully I can find a fairly inexpensive lighting option. As far as the reducer, since this is a 4x12v cart, is there no way to “isolate” one of the batteries without using a reducer? Probably not since they are linked together.

And yeah I have seen people using the blue sea marine fuse boxes so I will probably get one of those.

[Fairtax4me]

4 gauge is fine for a stock cart. Factory cables are 6ga. Unless you plan on doing some serious offroading or putting in a high speed motor and high amp controller, not much need for 2ga cables.

For light kits look into the LED lights. Better lighting and less draw on the pack. You'll also want to get a 48-12v reducer so the lights draw evenly from the entire pack.
You can certainly use one battery for 12v power, but drawing power form just one will bring that battery out of balance with the rest of the pack. It will have a lower state of charge than all the others and eventually will cause that battery to fail due to undercharging, while the other batteries will be overcharged and will have higher water loss rate.

Things you want to check on are bent components and worn bushings in the front suspension, King pin, control arms, leaf spring. Check for worn leaf spring bushings in the rear springs. And check the frame for cracks or impact damage.
Check the brake cables to make sure they're not bent or hanging up.
Check the brake levers in the rear drums to make sure they move freely. A seized brake cable or lever will cause drag and wear the brake shoes out.
That cart will have an MCOR throttle which is known to have some issues in the early years. The linkage wears and prevents the MCOR from giving full throttle signal to the motor controller which makes acceleration slow and makes uphill driving very slow.
Not necessarily a "must have" but if you do find the pedal/throttle linkage is worn out, the parts can be replaced, or you can upgrade to the MCOR4 design which is a little more reliable.

That should be an early IQ cart with sepex drive system, and the IQ motors wear out brushes pretty quick compared to other motors. If you notice it starting to shudder or jerk when accelerating, or having issues maintaining a constant speed it could be time to replace the brushes or upgrade the motor.

[hotwls13]

Wow! Thanks for all of that! It amazes me the wealth of knowledge about these carts here. Really appreciate it. Once I have the cart and the serial number I should be able to find out what exactly I have (I'm assuming). If it's an early IQ sepex or not.

Honestly I'm not sure I will get into a lot of that. I have a tendency to "go down the rabbit hole" so to speak with my projects/builds. Then I end up with a huge project, costing lots more $$ and taking me way longer than I originally planned.

This cart will be a rarely used neighborhood (sidewalks, parking lots and streets) cruiser. Main function will be getting my daughter used to operating a vehicle. Think an hour or two on the weekends max. Even more speed isn't something I need right now. I want it to be easy for her to manage and wouldn't want it running away from her downhill (which I've read can be the result of adding the magnet kit?). Though once she is driving a real car, if I keep the cart, I may get more into speed/performance upgrades.

May end up being "lipstick on a pig" but painting it red and making sure the electrical works properly will be about all I do.

The reducer, fuse box and light kit sounds like a no brainer. Might also add a volt meter/gauge to track the 48v pack. Any inexpensive suggestions for that?

[Fairtax4me]

If you're gonna get a voltmeter get a digital numerical meter (shows actual pack voltage), not the bar graph.

From the pics I see it has a rocker switch for the FnR which means its a Sepex drive system. That cart should only travel about 15mph if its still on the factory speed setting. It will also have downhill speed of only about 17-18mph before it slows itself down, and it should maintain that very well.
It should also have a 4 port plug under the FnR switch that is used for connecting the Curtis diagnostic handheld. The speed settings for that controller can be changed to make it slower or faster if you desire. Details on exactly what the speed settings I'm not familiar with, but most any cart shop or club car dealer can change that for you and can also adjust the regenerative braking (slows itself down when you let off the throttle).

[Dragracer_Art]

If there is even the remotest possibility of upgrading the motor controller... I would go straight to 2awg cables so you are not doing it twice.

I've replaced nearly every electrical component on my cart... and by far the best money spent was on the 500a Alltrax controller.

The coolest part about the Alltrax is how easily it is tuned.
You can even get a remote dial/switch that you can program faster or slower depending who is driving.

That's the Alltrax rabbit hole I went down.

Also... I just found another $300 1995 DS locally.
Unfortunately it has no batteries... (no cores) and that means $1000 out of pocket right off the bat. I'm still thinking about it though.

[hotwls13]

Originally Posted by Fairtax4me

The speed settings for that controller can be changed to make it slower or faster if you desire. Details on exactly what the speed settings I'm not familiar with, but most any cart shop or club car dealer can change that for you and can also adjust the regenerative braking (slows itself down when you let off the throttle).

Hmmm, I'll have to look into that. When I was buying my cart the "cart maintenance guy" showed me where on the motors the "magnet replacement" is. He stated he has done those in the past and it makes the cart much faster but that you use up a lot of battery time if on the pedal a lot.

He didn't mention anything about programming. I would think programming is easier (if you have the curtis programmer) than taking apart the motor?

There isn't any way to DIY a programmer for the curtis?

[hotwls13]

OK, I found some 2ga cables for $40 on ebay so I guess I'll go with 2ga (only like $15 more than the 4ga I was looking at. It is a 7 cable set (only need 5). But then I will have the extra 2 if i decide to convert from 12v to 8v.

I pick it up tomorrow so I'm sure I will figure it out, but how do I get the body off this thing? I've heard it's pretty easy, hopefully that's the case.

[Fairtax4me]

On a DS removing the body is enough hassle that I’ve never done it except to strip a cart for scrap. Not worth the effort to remove the roof, rear supports, and fight with all the little rusty screws that hold the body on. No much need when 95% of wiring can be reached from through the seat or the rear access hatch with little trouble.