1996 48v CC DS cutting out randomly

[PigSticker]

New member looking for help.

I have had a gas 99 CC DS for about 5 years and love it. Got a beat up 96 electric DS a few weeks back. It needed some throttle parts so I got an MCOR conversion and viola, my 400$ lifted cart runs like a champ. It worked great for a couple weeks. Took it all over the neighborhood and even on a 3 mile journey to pick up the kids from school. Absolutely enjoying the quiet of electric.

So I fixed a few nasty looking wires and added some LED headlights using a 16v-12v reducer and pulled the brakes apart trying to get them working. Spent hours doing all of this but in the end, took it for a victory lap. Trip was about a mile and a half around the neighborhood. 300 yards from the house, rounding a corner to the right, it shut off completely. Towed it home, and everything is a no go power wise. The lights worked and batteries are charged, but no forward or backward momentum.

Go out in the morning to try to troubleshoot the problem, and presto, the cart works again. Figured out one of my brakes was dragging, so figured something just got hot. Fixed the stuck brake and thought all was well. Well, NO.

The problem has gotten worse. It is totally random, sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. But it doesn't let me get more than a half mile from the house. When I start to go it will go fine, then feel like it has only half power. Sometimes it goes back to full power, and sometimes it shuts off completely. I have cleaned every connection I can find and made sure they are tight. I have checked voltage going into and out of the relay and controller, all the way to the motor. The relay clicks every time I hit the throttle and juice is getting through per my volt meter and test light. same with the controller. I removed the lights and reducer, but still random cutting out.

I am at my wits end. I love this little junk cart, but i don't really know what to do from here.

[ThreeCW]

Trouble shooting this will be a process of elimination.

It may sound simple, but start by checking your battery pack voltage with no load and pack voltage again when driving. And then check each battery with both no load and when driving. You could have a weak battery that is going into failure mode. Also check the resistance of all your high amperage cables to make sure that one is not going bad.

When you have another shut down event, check the temperature of all the high amp cables, solenoid, FR Contactor, Controller and motor to see if anything is heating up which may indicate a problem.

Report back what you find from the above and perhaps some of the more experienced members can guide you from there.

[Sergio]

There were 3 different 48v Club Car DS models in 1996, it would help if you can identify what you have.

Assuming you have a 48v Series cart (big lever for FNR), a stuck Solenoid could cause those symptoms.

Always troubleshoot a non running cart with one of the rear wheels OFF the ground.

The voltage across the Solenoid big posts should be 0v when it "clicks" if the Solenoid contacts are closing properly.

That 16v->12v reducer is not good for the pack health and You should replace it with a 48v->12v reducer.

If Your cart still uses the OBC for charging, all negative connections should come OFF the Controller B-, there should be a single cable and no other wires on the pack negative battery post.

[PigSticker]

It has a big lever on it for FNR, i think, in the center. It is exactly like my 99 gas DS

[PigSticker]

Well.....had quite a setback. Noticed one of the wires going to the motor had a portion of the insulation looked like it had been burned or worn off. I went to pull the wires off and clean those terminal posts. 2 came off clean, 2 broke off. One I was able to rig back. Another broke off at the bottom nut. I tried to pull off that nut and the post free spins. Reading through this fantastic sight, I feel I have probably torn up the wire on the inside and will have to pull it all apart. So I will likely have to wait until after Christmas for me to have time to pull it apart.

With all of that said, the wire that looked cooked was the orange (looked it to me) wire coming from the FnR switch. Could this have been my problem. Sound like a bad wire? bad connection? bad switch? bad motor?

[Mooncarter]

Always use 2 wrenches on those nuts.

[PigSticker]

yeah, little late now. I actually tried, but I didn't have a second wrench thin enough to get between the wire connector and the motor, so I gave it a shot. Lucked out on the first one, second not so much

[NoleFan4Ever]

Originally Posted by PigSticker

yeah, little late now. I actually tried, but I didn't have a second wrench thin enough to get between the wire connector and the motor, so I gave it a shot. Lucked out on the first one, second not so much

Crud! That ain't good.....

[roundtable2]

I am currently cleaning a solenoid pack on a 1984 and have a spare wrench that I ground
down to easily fit between solenoid housing and cable.

[PigSticker]

After a TON of reading and youtube watching, I think I may have figured out what the problem was. One of the brakes when I was working on them got overly tight and was dragging. I'm used to gas motors and if a brake is dragging all you're gonna do is trash the brake. So I said a mile or so isn't gonna kill it. I think the extra drag on the motor, along with an already old corroded connection, heated up that connection, make it an even worse connection. I think this caused my intermittent problem. So if I hadn't broken the stud off, It would've been a relatively easy fix.

Going to pull the motor off next week and see if I'm willing to tackle fixing it myself. A new motor isn't really in the budget, plus this was supposed to be a budget cart. On top of that, I just bought new wheels and tires for it, so there went my new motor money. Brushes aren't expensive and I'm pretty handy, so I guess we will see.

I have a feeling my 400$ cart is going to turn into a 4000$ cart pretty quickly with all of the stuff I want to do to it.