2003 Club Car - first time buyer - what do I need to know?

[bigkahuna75]

Originally Posted by CP241

Not sure where you're located or how soon you need them. But if theres a club car dealer nearby I'd just get it from them. If not www.revolutiongolfcars.com david is a great guy and he will sell OEM belts, not junk.

Thank you - actually found a guy at a local course who gets OEM stuff from Club Car and he has two in stock, no waiting!

[bigkahuna75]

Man - I definitely have given myself a whole new repair hobby.

Got the new belts on and once I compared to the old I could definitely tell it was time for a change.



Then I moved on to changing the spark plug - which confirms that the cart has been running rich. I'm going to add a new carb next.



Then I did a brake job and the old pads were completely gone - and I also was reminded why I hate drum brakes, been 20 years since I've messed with drums and what a PITA.

Finished and tried the brake only to notice there was a lot of play. Something wasn't right and found the adjustment underneath and realized that I'm missing the brake return spring. Got that ordered and that's next on the fix list.



Just need to get a new carb and two new tires and then hopefully I'll be all set for a while.

[CP241]

Dont bother getting a new carb unless something is physically damaged or broken in your OEM carb. All you probably need is just take it apart, give it a good cleaning and blow all the passages out with compressed air. Itll be good as new.

Doesnt make a lot of sense spending $150-200 on a new carb when a $3 can of carb cleaner works just as well. Skip the $20-30 amazon/ebay carbs. Seldom do those work out well

[bigkahuna75]

Ok - I had just read a couple of threads where people said if you are starting to have problems with the carb it's almost easier to just get a new one since they are pretty cheap but obviously cleaning is the cheapest option. I still have a can of spray which is weird since I haven't cleaned a carb on anything in years :)

[kgsc]

I’m with CP, bread twist tie and some carb cleaner are a much better option just count turns on screws before you remove them.

[bigkahuna75]

I got the new belts on and cart started up and then the starter belt came off the wheel so re-tightened and seems solid now. Cart starts much better now than before - no delay.

However, voltage at the battery is 12.83 before start and then at full throttle I'm seeing 18.20+/- volts at the battery which makes me wonder if the voltage regulator is bad?

Possibly this is what burned up that last starter and caused it to melt?

New starter started making the same burning smell just after a couple minutes of testing and got all hot. Not good. Hopefully didn't cause any lasting damage to the new starter immediately.

[CP241]

Disconnect the yellow wire at the starter and see what kind of voltage it outputs. Shouldnt be much. Then if you touch the field terminal on the starter/generator to ground it should be around 18v

Check the ground connection on the voltage regulator. These are common to have a bad ground and mess things up.

And no, running the starter/generator 18v didnt cause that catastrophe you saw in the cheap one. That's just too common for crap S/G's. It will, however destroy a battery quick and in a hurry.

[bigkahuna75]

Just wanted to give an update as I think it's helpful for people later to know the final results of problems/repairs.

Got the new voltage regulator in - easy replacement - voltage at full throttle is now a consistent 14.5 which is a big difference from the 18+ it was seeing.

Went for about a mile drive and then stopped and could smell a little burning - new belts had a tiny bit of smoke come up from them and were hot (both starter and drive belt). Did another mile and they were hot but no more smoking. Perhaps it was just them breaking in although I've never had a belt do that on a car.

With the new starter no delays when pushing the pedal - it starts perfectly every time.

When checking the belts I did notice the starter/generator was pretty warm - around 130F on the IR heat gun. Muffler was around 200F. I could place my palm on the generator but wouldn't want to leave it there too long. Not sure what normal operating temp is on that part - I'm a little paranoid after that last one smoked itself in such a crazy way.

So it's running - did about 3 miles tonight and everything seems to be working. Valves are a little noisy so might check the gap on those next. I have half of tank of old gas still that was in it when I bought it. I added some marvel mystery oil to it - not sure how long it takes to burn though half a tank. I'd like to use non ethanol from now on.