EZ-GO no go - solenoid not clicking - where do I start?

[radioman]

The voltage across the solenoid small terminals should be a good steady approx 36 volts when you press the pedal. There is a small 4 pin connecter in line with the cable coming from the pedal box in the center bottom of the battery compartment. Inspect it for poor connection or corrosion. The pedal box under the floor mat center has a switch in it that switches voltage to the solenoid small posts that cause the solenoid to click and furnish power to make the cart go No click, no go. Has the cart been in water? I am not sure what the voltage readings you are getting are. Digital Voltmeter leads sometimes pick up stray voltage on wires that don't mean anything. And sometimes they will play tricks if the battery powering them is weak. You should secure cart against sudden movement when working on this part of cart.

[kgsc]

Gentlemen, what you need to understand is the 1264 Curtis is a smart controller. When it powers up it pretty much does a self test to see if everything it okay. One of those tests is checking to see if the contactor/solenoid is there. It does this by checking to see if there is resistance at the coil. If it doesn't get the desired result it will throw a code. On the Curtis 1268 that code is a 5,2. With the cart in Tow, remove the small wires to the solenoid, put your VOM on Ohms around 200 and put one of the leads on each small terminal and see if you get a reading. If no, replace the solenoid.

[quickbiscuit]

Originally Posted by radioman

The voltage across the solenoid small terminals should be a good steady approx 36 volts when you press the pedal. There is a small 4 pin connecter in line with the cable coming from the pedal box in the center bottom of the battery compartment. Inspect it for poor connection or corrosion. The pedal box under the floor mat center has a switch in it that switches voltage to the solenoid small posts that cause the solenoid to click and furnish power to make the cart go No click, no go. Has the cart been in water? I am not sure what the voltage readings you are getting are. Digital Voltmeter leads sometimes pick up stray voltage on wires that don't mean anything. And sometimes they will play tricks if the battery powering them is weak. You should secure cart against sudden movement when working on this part of cart.

I'll give that 4 pin connector a look. Cart has not been in water. I think those strange readings were because I have an "Auto-ranging" multimeter.

Originally Posted by kgsc

Gentlemen, what you need to understand is the 1264 Curtis is a smart controller. When it powers up it pretty much does a self test to see if everything it okay. One of those tests is checking to see if the contactor/solenoid is there. It does this by checking to see if there is resistance at the coil. If it doesn't get the desired result it will throw a code. On the Curtis 1268 that code is a 5,2. With the cart in Tow, remove the small wires to the solenoid, put your VOM on Ohms around 200 and put one of the leads on each small terminal and see if you get a reading. If no, replace the solenoid.

I'm really hoping it's the solenoid, but I've got a couple of <dumb> questions. Should I be touching the leads to the post itself on the solenoid, or to the terminals where I removed the wires?

If I touch the leads to the small posts, I get no reading. If I touch the leads to the terminals, I get a reading of ~.260. Just wanted to clarify that before I get all excited about finding the problem.

Thanks guys!!

[kgsc]

Solenoid should have 4 places for wires to attach. 2 large, 2 small. You want to touch the leads to the 2 small with no controller wires attached.

[quickbiscuit]

I'm about to pull what's left of my hair out. I reattached wires to solenoid, and unwrapped the 4-pin deutsch connector coming from the pedal box. I had messed with that before (I don't recall why). I unplugged and reconnected, hit the pedal, and CLICK!! The cart jumps forward. I drove around the house a few times. All good except when I first started out the solenoid cycled quickly a few times making the cart stumble - like a bad connection. My 5,2 code went away after the cart ran.

So I decide to get rid of that deutsch connector and replace with posi-locks. Nothing visibly wrong with the connector when I disassembled. Got everything hooked back up and...NOTHING.

SO...

I start wiggling wires around and found that (I think) I've got something going on with the red/white stripe wire that comes off the charging receptacle and feeds into the wiring harness. I moved that wire around at the bottom of the cart where the wiring harness splits and got power back.

What is this wire, and where does it lead to? I can't see anything wrong with the wiring harness looking under the cart. Don't know what is going on with this wire, but it seems that's my problem. The problem area is somewhere in the wiring harness that I can't see. Does that wire split to different connections close to where the wiring harness enters the cart from underneath?

[quickbiscuit]

Originally Posted by kgsc

Solenoid should have 4 places for wires to attach. 2 large, 2 small. You want to touch the leads to the 2 small with no controller wires attached.

I guess the solenoid isn't my problem after all but I still want to learn about this. My solenoid is like the one pictured below. On the two small threaded posts I have 2 spade terminals on each post secured with a nut. Before testing earlier I unplugged those 4 spade connectors. When I held the leads to the threaded posts, I got no reading. But when I held the leads to the spade terminals connected to those posts, I got the reading of ~.260. Which was the correct way to test? I'm asking because I'm not sure what you meant by controller wires. Thanks!

[scottyb]

Replace the 4 wire connector with 4 butt connectors or better solder and shrink wrap.

[kgsc]

Okay, first, the red/white wire coming from the charging receptacle is the charger interlock that senses if the cart is plugged in to the charger. That will have pack voltage on it with the charger unplugged. There is a reed switch in the receptacle that is know to failure but from the corrosion you talked about earlier there is another failure point where the wire leaves the loom on the passenger side. There is a male/female connection there. Check the condition of that and with it unplugged the receptacle side should have pack voltage.

Question 2. If your solenoid had terminals attached to those studs but no wires attached to that then your 260 reading is about right. The studs may not have show due to a bad connection on the stud.

[quickbiscuit]

Originally Posted by kgsc

Okay, first, the red/white wire coming from the charging receptacle is the charger interlock that senses if the cart is plugged in to the charger. That will have pack voltage on it with the charger unplugged. There is a reed switch in the receptacle that is know to failure but from the corrosion you talked about earlier there is another failure point where the wire leaves the loom on the passenger side. There is a male/female connection there. Check the condition of that and with it unplugged the receptacle side should have pack voltage.

Question 2. If your solenoid had terminals attached to those studs but no wires attached to that then your 260 reading is about right. The studs may not have show due to a bad connection on the stud.

I bet this is my problem. Something, maybe the red wire, is not making a good connection where the harness enters the cart from underneath. The issue is going to be access. They really cram that wiring harness up in there. I'm not sure how I'm going to get to it.

Edit: I think I have already addressed that connection in the past. I have a posi-lock there. The problem is somewhere inside the loom near the split where the harness enters the cart. I can manipulate that area and cause the cart to either go or not go. I think I am going to have to pull the harness through from underneath to work on this. What is the easiest way to access the key switch and battery meter panel on the dash? I need to disconnect that end of the wiring harness.

[kgsc]

That red/white wire should go straight to the controller. On a 1268 it is pin j1-2. Chase it to the harness plug at the controller and find the bad connection