EZ-GO struggling up hills, possible preignition

[Heliarc]

Originally Posted by Dave Box

Here is another $0.02. Your driven clutch is sticky. You start off fine and the cvt gradually changes into top gear (drive fully closed ; driven fully open). When you hit the hill you start to slow and the driven should start to close to lower the gear ratio. Instead the driven sticks open and you remain in to higher gear causing the engine to labour (with a U as we say in English) and rattle around on its mounts.

If you remove the cover behind the seats you can get your co-pilot to drive whilst you observe the clutches going up the same hill.

Dave

That's an interesting thought.The insides of the driven clutch sheaves are quite badly pitted with rust.Think that could do it?I mean "pitting" is an understatement.Some of the "pits" are nearly 6-8 mm across and almost completely through the sheave.It looks horrible, but I figured it would work for awhile until I can save up a spare arm and leg for a new driven clutch.And of course if the outside is that bad, the inside could be crapped up pretty good too.

Also I had to remove the dust cover to get my drive belt off once.The screwheads were stripped so I had to drill the heads off.I still can't get the cover on since I can't extract the screws.It kicks up a good amount of dust as well since the tailpipe is rotted off of the muffler and now just blows straight down onto the ground.I want to get one back on it, but it would hang down lower than the rest of the undercarriage.That would be an issue with some of the places I go.I was thinking about a plate that deflects the exhaust, welded to the muffler that wouldn't hang down nearly as low.

The wife and daughter have been riding it all day yesterday though and it's working just fine with less weight.

[Heliarc]

*Update*

Today just the wife and daughter were riding it around.Going up the hill it did the same thing to them.They got halfway up the hill and turned in on a side road.They sat at one of the neighbors with it idling for a bit(accel switch is defeated) and after that it ran out of the neighbors driveway like nothing.This driveway is fairly steep.

[Dave Box]

It's Father's day Sunday. If your daughter really loves you she has already ordered a new clutch which will be delivered tomorrow. No clutch = no love.

Sorry
Dave

[Heliarc]

Well, she's only four, but she said she ordered it, but then she ate it...Anyhow, I got a video of a light grade and a good steep one.It's uploading now but my connection is really crap.It seems to me that the clutches are indeed shifting up and down.What the camera doesn't pick up though is how the engine sounds when I get to the steep grade.The exhaust just sounds funny somehow and the engine does too.I'm praying something didn't let go internally.Whatever it is though, it's definitely getting worse.I'll post the vid in about one hour and forty minutes.

[1fast67]

I'm 100% its the driven clutch. My cart does the same thing. I put a nee bushing and ramp shoes in mine and it barely helped because its too far gone. It rattles to no end. I think the cheapest is $200 at everything carts which is a sponser.

Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2

[kgsc]

Originally Posted by Dave Box

Here is another $0.02. Your driven clutch is sticky. You start off fine and the cvt gradually changes into top gear (drive fully closed ; driven fully open). When you hit the hill you start to slow and the driven should start to close to lower the gear ratio. Instead the driven sticks open and you remain in to higher gear causing the engine to labour (with a U as we say in English) and rattle around on its mounts.

If you remove the cover behind the seats you can get your co-pilot to drive whilst you observe the clutches going up the same hill.

Dave

Dave if you just stopped on the hill and let the engine shut off the drive clutch should open completely right ? If you did this then tried to resume the climb shouldn't it start out in low speed hi torque mode ? Just something else to try..

[Dave Box]

Yes indeed that is what should happen but if it was sticky then maybe it closes a bit and hangs effectively trying to pull the hill in third instead of first gear. Heliarc says

They sat at one of the neighbors with it idling for a bit(accel switch is defeated) and after that it ran out of the neighbors driveway like nothing.This driveway is fairly steep.

and you could surmise that the idling vibrated the clutch fully closed so it then pulled as normal.

However all this is moot as it appears that the clutches are working. I await the video.

Dave

[Heliarc]

Ok here's the vid.It's a pretty good grade towards the end and it looks like the clutches are moving.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRJju...ature=youtu.be

Now here's a stab in the dark, but I was messing around with it on the stands and I noticed I have some bad engine mounts.At one point, the engine cradle is laying directly on the swingarm instead of being suspended by the rubber.I also notice that running on the stands, the drive clutch wants to pull towards the driven clutch.Now I think this would almost be the same as making the belt longer, resulting in less torque.Further, I think this would be aggravated by having an actual load on it.

Any thoughts?

[BrewCityMusic]

DANG I should have thought of that as I had the SAME problem ... Mine got so bad not only did i lose power but it actually cut through the clutch cover on the driven clutch where it was rubbing on the motor under heavy load - make that same tick-tick noise too - so I would definitely say that spending the $ and time for new mounts will be a GOOD thing, and likely your solution !!!

[Heliarc]

Awesome!Hopefully that's going to be a cheaper solution than a driven clutch, and I definitely know it needs done.I think I owe you two cases of beer now.You'll have to settle for Pennsylvania coal cracker beer though.