1999 Power Drive charger problems

[gadavis]

Go with Tahoe dog's information 100% . I work for a golf course and when I need information I call him. We have had the same problem with chargers. When it clicks then trips the breaker it is a 99% safe bet the diode assembly AKA rectifier is gone. Most of the time if you smell of the charger you can tell when they go. Occasionally one will have a diode assembly go bad and not trip the breaker, but that is rare. Also you need to pay close attention to the heat transfer putty or dielectric goo that goes in between the diode assembly and the diode assembly. Clean the surfaces good with some type of solvent, I use carburetor cleaner and when it dries spread the paste on the back of the diode holder and assemble it to the charger case. Just before you tighten it up,twist back and forth a little bit to make sure the paste is distributed and has no air pockets to impede the heat transfer to the aluminum. Heat kills electronic parts like these

[wilster734]

Glad to here you gotter done

[pracer53]

to check heatsink diodes, get a meter with a diode checker function and read across diodes with the wires disconnected.

they should only read one way.

no reading , open

reading both ways, shorted

[x-bird]

Second charger is good to go. it ended up being the relay, i just swapped around the extra i had left over. a little strange in that i had done that before and it wouldn't go on. possibly it might've just been age/dirty terminals on the relay connections. I also swapped the ammeters. ended up buying no extra parts, so all is good!