Cart troubleshooting

[gjdavis76]

So last night driving down the road the cart died. I stopped and it started working again. Has progressively gotten worse until nothing today. It clicks and tries to move but does not move. It does this in forward and reverse. Maybe the controller? An ideas?

[delagem]

Mine did exactly this, and it turned out to be the solenoid.

Do you hear a click from the solenoid when you depress the accelerator pedal? If you hear a click, but no go, try one of these:

You can either:

a. take the solenoid out the circuit briefly, for testing. Just remove the one large wire from one terminal, and connect it to the other side. Don't operate like this, as it bypasses all your safeties (key switch, microswitch in pedal, etc)

b. alternatively, jack the back end of the cart up, jam a stick or something to hold the accelerator down, with the cart in either Fwd or Rev. Short something metal across the large terminals on the solenoid. Sparks should ensue, and the wheels should spin.

If either of these work, you've either got a bad solenoid; or, if there's no "click" from the solenoid, then the circuit that engages the solenoid isn't working properly.

[gjdavis76]

So with more troubleshooting the solenoid looks fine. The input voltage to the controller and output voltage looks fine. The manual says B+ and M- terminals on the controller should show about 48 volts. I'm showing 42. However with the pedal depressed I am getting full battery voltage. Unless I am missing something it looks like the motor but the motor did not short the case and I did not see open between the s terminals and a terminals. Any ideas on how to positively diagnose before I spend a couple 100 on the motor?

[delagem]

Did you try one of the tests I suggested above?

The reason I suggest you test this way, and not with a voltmeter, is the resistor. The resistor across the large lugs on your solenoid WILL provide voltage, just not enough to run the cart.

Another alternative to my test, take the resistor off, and THEN test. But don't run that way for long, the resistor has a purpose (besides confusing people with voltmeters)...

[shadowman]

what year? and i,m guessing 48 volt cart? have you went thur the basics like load testing batteries and grabbing tugging every cable to make sure one didn,t come loose? is cart lifted? any mods done?.......................................

[gjdavis76]

Alright it was the solenoid! It was clicking but it was not moving. The manual threw me off a little too! According to the manual everything appeared to be fine. Thanks for all the replies!

[delagem]

Originally Posted by gjdavis76

Alright it was the solenoid! It was clicking but it was not moving. The manual threw me off a little too! According to the manual everything appeared to be fine. Thanks for all the replies!

Hey, glad you got it going!

I just wanted to clear something up for people who may come across this thead in the future; in post #4 above, I made it sound like taking the resistor out and then attempting to drive the cart was a test. It isn't. Removing the resistor won't make a dead solenoid work. I had two different thoughts going on when I typed that.

I meant to say, take the resistor out, and then you can test voltage (or continuity across the big lugs) using a volt/ohmmeter.

[shadowman]

Originally Posted by gjdavis76

Alright it was the solenoid! It was clicking but it was not moving. The manual threw me off a little too! According to the manual everything appeared to be fine. Thanks for all the replies!

this is why i try and stay old school when testing cause sometimes when you test a part by the manual instructions and you end up saying well according to test its ok.......its not, i have run into this 100,s of times and if you read thur my post you,ll see plenty of times i say forget about what manual says.......go old school.............don,t get me wrong i have thousands of dollars in manuals but there are times to just put them away.................................