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Electric EZGO Electric EZ GO Marathon, Medalist, TXT and RXV. |
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05-26-2018, 12:33 PM | #1 |
Gone Wild
Join Date: May 2017
Location: Sugar Land, TEXAS
Posts: 270
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Resistor Cart HOT WIRES! Ouch
I've got a 79 resistor cart with a liteseasy light kit and volt meter. After about 5 minutes of driving the cart starts slowing down and losing voltage. I start smelling burning so I rush home and park it. By the time I'm pulling up in the driveway the lights had shut off and it barely has enough power to make it up the driveway and then I hear this high pitch beeping noise. I tracked down the problem and a big cable going from the FR switch to the battery, along with the light kit wires are hot and have somewhat melted at the terminal. What caused this and how to fix it? Only this one terminal is hot and all the wires connected to it. Thanks!
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05-26-2018, 12:44 PM | #2 |
Gone Mad
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Buford, GA
Posts: 8,988
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Re: Resistor Cart HOT WIRES! Ouch
Did you check all cables for heat? I'd replace the one that got hot at a minimum. You might want to replace them all, as they're likely all the same age.
Clean up the battery terminal while changing out the cables. Use a good dielectric grease and torque in accordance with manufactuer's recomendation. Note the figures are in inch-pounds, not foot-pounds. Overtorquing is as bad as undertorquing. Overtorquing can result in damaging the soft lead terminal, which can result in a bad connection. |
05-26-2018, 12:54 PM | #3 | |
Gone Wild
Join Date: May 2017
Location: Sugar Land, TEXAS
Posts: 270
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Re: Resistor Cart HOT WIRES! Ouch
Quote:
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05-26-2018, 01:01 PM | #4 |
Gone Mad
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Buford, GA
Posts: 8,988
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Re: Resistor Cart HOT WIRES! Ouch
You need to remove the cable and clean the terminal before riding again. Car battery cables won't work. For one thing, the hole is too big, which will result in less surface area in contact with the post, which will result in more overheating. Also, a car battery cable has fewer large strands than cables made for buggies. Welding cable is the best, as it has many smaller strands, which helps reduce eddy current, and makes them more flexible. Also, the insulation is better suited to a corrosive environment.
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05-26-2018, 01:09 PM | #5 | |
Gone Wild
Join Date: May 2017
Location: Sugar Land, TEXAS
Posts: 270
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Re: Resistor Cart HOT WIRES! Ouch
Quote:
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05-26-2018, 01:13 PM | #6 |
Gone Mad
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Buford, GA
Posts: 8,988
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Re: Resistor Cart HOT WIRES! Ouch
The existing cable may well be correct. It either has a loose connection, corrosion, or a bad crimp where the cable connects to the terminal. In any event, bad connections result in higher resistance, which causes it to overheat. You're lucky, as many folks didn't catch their problem until the battery post had melted.
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05-26-2018, 10:38 PM | #7 |
Gone Wild
Join Date: May 2017
Location: Sugar Land, TEXAS
Posts: 270
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Re: Resistor Cart HOT WIRES! Ouch
Update: Guess I should rename this thread "Resistor Cart HOT SOLENOID! Ouch"
Update: I cleaned all the terminals and changed out ALL the cables to new 4 gauge cables, gave it a full charge and then test drove it around the neighborhood. It was good as new! It even reached a new top speed of 14 mph on flat ground! Not bad for a 40 year old resistor cart. It rode good for a good 30 minutes like this (compared to previously only going 5 minutes then losing power)...then after 30 minutes of riding much better, it lost power like it used to and I had to limp it back home real slow. Lifted the seat up and the solenoid was burning hot! As well as the NEW cable going to the solenoid, burning hot. The other terminal that was giving me problems did just fine and no other cables were hot that were overheating previously so apparently I fixed those problems. But now it's just the solenoid burning hot and the 1 cable going to it. I made sure everything was tightened properly with new cables. What is the problem? This is a stock 36 volt resistor coil cart with the only upgrade being 4 gauge cables, but it was doing this before I added the new cables. Do I need a new solenoid? I tightened all the other little wires going to the solenoid too and it still overheated. I'm stumped. Edit: When the wires and solenoid get hot, it loses power and my volt meter shows about half the voltage it should. When it sits and cools off a few minutes, the voltage goes back up and I can ride it again...until it gets hot again 5 minutes later. |
05-27-2018, 12:05 AM | #8 |
Gone Wild
Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: Richmond, TX
Posts: 1,026
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Re: Resistor Cart HOT WIRES! Ouch
I think your solenoid is showing it's age.
Probably has worked well for a long time and now with new load demands the contacts are heating up. It could have some shorted winding's in the coil also. I would upgrade it and redo any questionable terminals to it. |
05-27-2018, 12:31 AM | #9 | |
Gone Wild
Join Date: May 2017
Location: Sugar Land, TEXAS
Posts: 270
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Re: Resistor Cart HOT WIRES! Ouch
Quote:
So should I upgrade to an HD solenoid? Being a resistor cart with no controller I don't know how that would work with an HD solenoid and what other upgrades would be needed to do that. |
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05-27-2018, 01:27 AM | #10 |
Gone Wild
Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: Richmond, TX
Posts: 1,026
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Re: Resistor Cart HOT WIRES! Ouch
The SW180 is a nice choice for a stock upgrade.
Later if you change from coils to high output controller and motor upgrade you can do a MZJ400A. http://www.cartsunlimited.net/solenoids.html Should be a easy swap out in same location. May have to tweak mounting a little. IDK. I don't think there is anything else to it. |
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