Load Causes Stalling/Shutdown on 8 Passenger

[Pipsta]

This is a 8 passenger and with 1 or 2 people on the cart. No issue. With 3-5 people I'll notice it has a tough time taking off from a standstill. The lights will dim or flicker, yea I'm running it at night mostly. With 6-8 people, fuhgettuhboutit, it doesn't budge. Kills it, the gen/starter even stops turning as soon as I put my foot on the go pedal and try to take off.

I'm hoping it's cheap like a new drive belt and I'll start there. The old one on there doesn't look too bad but who knows, it could be bad. What about just an adjustment on the belt? I'm hoping it's not the whole trans/rear end. That would be a bummer right now financially.

Any ideas on what it sounds like it could be or what else could cause this? I have very little to no diagnostic experience with these carts. Doing some word searching hasn't turned up any other threads with similar symptoms either.

[scottyb]

What you are describing sounds like the motor is bogging ... can't start? Make sure you have plenty of battery power.
Otherwise I think you may have a clutch issue? THe motor and drive train was designed for 2 people and a lot less cart


Some guys are getting the driven clutch machined for a lower gear and adding a power spring for a slower up shift... Hope this helps

[DOOmsman]

Dog, Pipsta put a new battery in, could it be its off the shelf and not fully charged???

[Pipsta]

Originally Posted by scottyb

What you are describing sounds like the motor is bogging ... can't start? Make sure you have plenty of battery power.
Otherwise I think you may have a clutch issue? THe motor and drive train was designed for 2 people and a lot less cart


Some guys are getting the driven clutch machined for a lower gear and adding a power spring for a slower up shift... Hope this helps

It's not like I have a custom built cart. This is a from the factory frame and cart. There are plenty of these out there working perfectly all over the place. For the first 13 years of this carts life it worked fine. So there must be something wrong with it now.

Finding out what it is will be the problem. What do you mean bogging? I just put a new battery on it and new cables. Doesn't the running power come from the gen/starter?

[Pipsta]

Originally Posted by DOOmsman

Dog, Pipsta put a new battery in, could it be its off the shelf and not fully charged???

Thanks for the back-up. I don't expect everyone to be privy to everything else said in other threads. He might not have read that.

There are four other unmodified 8 pass club cars with the same 11hp motor and stock transaxel/clutch setup working perfectly fine right now in the same area I'm at doing the same thing. Of course a biz competitor won't go out of the way to help me so I have to find the solution elsewhere. I know it's going to be underpowered and sluggish compared to a shorty cart but I'm not looking for super speed. Just working properly is what I need to get to.

[Pipsta]

I can't believe there isn't anyone who has had something like this happen to them that could give me some ideas. Or come across this type of problem on a forum and watched how it was solved to help clue me in. I don't know enough about these carts to really know what to look for and test or even how to test these things. I appreciate the battery idea but I just replaced battery and cables so I don't think it could be that. Maybe it is electric related. It might be fine sitting in one spot or with a light load and the problem only pops up when loaded with weight so it will make it hard to catch it in the act.

I could change the belts, that would be a start. I just wonder if a starter/generator not putting out enough juice would let the cart 'stall' under weight. Whether it's bad start/gen or a bad belt that's doing it. Or if the driven clutch is worn in some way.

I guess I'll have to pay someone to figure it out for me even though it took me all my resources to get this cart and get it here and have very little left to deal with a problem like this. If I had a couple weeks of working with it I'd have the funds to do it but without that I really have to be budget conscious.

I might have to sell some of my electronics to fund it or if I don't get back to working I'm screwed. I can always re-buy an ipod, LCD TV and the LCD monitors for my desktop.

I was hoping to get some free diagnostic help here and be able to troubleshoot it myself. I could then just buy the part(s) and do the work saving myself the cost of labor but it looks like I'm gonna have to sacrifice some stuff to get through this.

[DOOmsman]

Pipsta you have not answered if you charged the battery? Can you post a picture of the clutches and belt so we can see the reletive locations.

[Pipsta]

Originally Posted by DOOmsman

Pipsta you have not answered if you charged the battery? Can you post a picture of the clutches and belt so we can see the reletive locations.

The battery is brand new so no I didn't charge the battery. The cart runs and drive perfectly fine with the lights on if only there's 1 or 2 people in it. As soon as it gets to 4-5 people is when this issue happens. I use it, or at least will be using it once I finally get it going, to transport people bar hopping around an old town area about a square mile area. I couldn't keep working for the guy who I was leasing from for legal reasons so I hadn't been working for about 3 weeks before the cart showed up.

So that's why this is imperative I get it going. I spent all my funds buying it and getting it here, registration and commercial ins policy to cover my passengers took all my money. I'm down to a couple hundred bucks to get this going. Thank goodness I just paid my bills I have a few weeks before anything is due.

I'll try to post some pics. The cart is being stored close to where I'm using it at a friends house but is 25 miles from where I live. I have a couple appointments this morning to take care of so I'll have to do it in the aft. I'll also pull the battery and have it checked just in case.

[Pipsta]

Lucky me!!!!! In the process of checking the obvious things....battery charge, generator charging and then the wires, I figured out what was wrong. Somebody along the way thought it was a bright idea to reroute the charging wire that goes from the generator to the black box that electrifies the cart and charges the battery. Instead of around the side which seems like where it should go this person routed it over the top. Where the cart would pound down on it every time it was loaded heavily. So by now it was pounded fairly flat and and had about an inch of wire exposed.

Even though I'd prefer to replace the portion damaged funds permitting I gave it a squeeze with pliers after disconnecting the ground on the battery to make it kinda roundish again. Taped it with electrical tape, used a rubber insulation sleeve I had in the bottom of my tool box, then taped it again. finally rerouting it to where there looks to be an obvious channel in the underside of the body for that generator post and wire to come off and around the side.

So all it took was a few dollars gas money and an hour or two of time to figure this one out and fix it. I feel pretty lucky.

[lockman1]

Huh... There's something I would have never guessed would happen!

Great job on the diagnosis!

And I suppose I don't have to tell you to replace that wire when it's financially doable, I'm sure you will!