1996 Electric Club Car (48v) - Showing Short To Solenoid

[The Mongoose]

My '96 Electric Club Car is running out of juice well before it should. New batteries and fully charged. I've had to replace a couple of automatic chargers and I've reworked the accelerator switch and potentiometer. I've been reading many posts on solenoid bypassing, etc. so I tested the solenoid via an Ohm Meter (read .2 between posts) and the resistor and diode. All seem to test good. I noticed when reconnecting my cable from the solenoid to the positive post on the end of the battery series that there was a little spark. The key was off and nothing was hooked up so this would tell me (as a shade tree mechanic) there must be a short through the solenoid. I had read that the solenoid was supposed to "click" (w/o the cable from the battery connected) when the key was on and accelerator pedal was pressed down. I tried this and got NO "click". Can anyone tell me whether my reasoning is valid regarding the short and another way to test the solenoid? Thank you.

[scottyb]

The diode may have failed open? If it is external remove it and test it for continuity, you should have continuity only one way. You can remove the diode and run the cart for test purposes. The source of the short may come from any of the many solenoid connections.

[The Mongoose]

Thank You Scottyb. I receive your advice and will do such.

[Col_G]

scottyb:
Which diode, and where is it located on a 96 DS? Thank you.