Assistance with EZGO TXT brake lights after turn signal addition

[brundl3fly]

Hi there,

I've been working on my "new" 2011 EZGO TXT. I got a light kit on Amazon from Fat Cat Golf and it's worked out fairly well. I had to do a lot of hackery since it had a 9 pin connector and my EZGO had a 6 pin plus a red and black wire. I have not moved the headlight activation to that stalk switch from the normal keyed switch, I was only trying to get a horn, signals, and brakes. NOw to my issue.

After a lot of trial and error because there was no good wiring diagram for the switch I have front and rear signals, head and tail lights, and a horn. One of the things on the EZGO wiring diagram says if you have turn signals hook up the white and yellow wires, if not use the brown wires. With brown wires hooked up the brakes worked. Looking at the diagram it only makes sense that with the white and yellow there is no power input coming from the brake pad to the lights anymore, I get that. What I don't get is how people have gotten both signals and brakes out of similar systems. I attempted a temporary connection with taps joining the red wire on the tail light with the brown wires which I thought might help but lights got all strange after that.

I am not saying that my wire translation is perfect, I just know things are working minus brakes and was wondering if people had similar experiences. I know there is a chance I may have to go back through my other wiring but am open to suggestions.

[Cobra,1]

What worked before you added turn signals.
Did your cart have factory tail light,brake light head light package already installed?
Are you using the same 48 volt wiring diagram as posted in the stickers on this site?
Reason for asking is my txt had factory light package but had plug for adding turn signals.

[brundl3fly]

Hi Cobra 1,


The cart had factory installed light bar in front and lights in the back. Those worked on the key switch. The second position activated the headlights and "running lights".

Since the kit contained a horn, brake pad, and turn signal assembly all of this is being retrofitted now. My cart had the wiring under the cup holder, a 6 pin plug and red and black wires. It's the same as the wiring example in the TXT owner's manual. That part of it's easy. The real issue is there is not a good wiring example for the kit I got. I've talked to the customer support people and have a wiring diagram but the wire colors are wildly different than their example.

I'm thinking that tapping the brown brake light wire into the same red wires into the brake lights created feedback or something because things got crazy with he turn signals and brakes once I did that. When I removed the connection everything went back to normal.

I'm considering not messing with it further and just getting one of those "stop light strips" to stick on the back and hook up to the brown wires BUT if someone has an idea for me I'll try it/1

[Cobra,1]

Do you have or located the 12 volt fuse panel under drivers side seat? That should be the 12 volt supply after the 48 to 12 volt reducer/ converter to the fuse panel to power all 12 volt accessories. Txt wire diagram shows wire color from fuse block to lights, brake, signals. Diagram also shows tail light connections with or with out turn signals at rear bulbs that may need to be changed depending on how cart was wired originally.
Any lights,signals,etc should get 12 volt supply from there. Probably not good to tap off wires anywhere else. Heard horror stories from others tapping into wires after key switch or wiring changes without controller in tow position.
Can you post a scan of the kits wire diagram?

[cgtech]

Are you still using the factory wiring to the tail lights? If so, it's just a simple wire swap at the tail light wiring at the back. That happens every time a "non turn signal" cart gets turned into a "complete-full-lights" package cart. Does your current wiring have 4 wires at the tail lights (one of those 4 unused hanging out)?

[brundl3fly]

Hi to both of you and thanks for replying.

Yeah I removed the taps and all went back to normal. It was interesting to see how stuff lit up when they were on!

Cobra, yep got to the fuse panel. That was the first hurdle when I was putting on just the brake first. I thought that was the most important feature (funny it's not working of all of it now). The brake and horn fuses were empty, only headlight was there. Obviously fine since it didn't have either on but I have the fuses in place.


As both you and cgtech have mentioned, the TXT wiring is meant to be swapped. The diagram from the manual states "For vehicles without turn signals, remove white from left rear turn signal, remove yellow from right rear turn signal, connect brown wire to red.


When I hooked the brake up this is exactly what I did: fuse in to complete power circuit and made sure brown wires were hooked to the red wires on the rear lights. This worked fine. Now comes the hard part.

It even says on the wiring above "for vehicles without turn signals". When I hooked up signals I had to swap the brown wires for the white and yellow. Done and turn signals are fine.

I'd post their wiring diagram but its a mess because they are using the same setup as MadJax except the colors are in no way close to what MadJax has so it's been a trial and error process.

I think where I'm falling down is that the brown wire from my cart's wiring diagram that would go to the turn signal switch must be what controls the brakes when it isn't a simple circuit from the switch to the brown wires. The signal switch must send the power from that brown wire to the yellow and white wires now being used on the rear lights. Does that make sense? If so I need to check that connection and experiment with how I have things hooked up. If I get this I'll post the color combinations used.

This is where I was directed for wiring on the switch kit:
https://www.nivelparts.com/support/m...ght-Kit_WD.pdf

Once again, I have not hooked up ALL wires because I left the headlights on the key switch..for now at any rate.

One issue, it occurs to me, might be the colors for the horn. I think purple is key for the horn (see, I told you that the diagram wasn't even close!) but I may have selected the wrong second color. I need to complete that circuit for the horn and need 2 colors. On the cart harness I have yellow and orange/white. The kit showed only one color wire and even when I found that purple was key that left me lacking a wire. Maybe I swapped these and messed up the brakes? I'll go check that later today.

Thanks again for the help.

[brundl3fly]

I did some more work on the cart this morning. Current status is all parts are working EXCEPT the brake light at the rear passenger light. Here is what I've found on the wiring, despite the diagram and wire colors presented in the MadJax document. I understand this is not a MadJax product so it's not their fault.

Signal Wire Color -> Cart Wire Color - > Purpose

Black - > Black -> Ground
Red - > Red - > Switch Power
Blue and Purple - > Horn Switch
Gray -> Red - > Front Driver Signal
Brown -> Green -> Front Passenger Signal
White -> White -> Rear Driver Signal
Green - > Yellow - > Rear Passenger Signal
Yellow - > Brown -> Brakes

I've tried a number of permutations of wring trying to get this to work better. If I switch the rear passenger wire from yellow to brown the brake works but I think that's because the brown wires are working fine on the cart harness. I'm all out of wires or I'd say that there must be something else that should hook to the brown wire on the cart harness for brakes... or the yellow wire on the signal harness SHOULD be sending signal to both but is only sending to the driver side.

I swapped both the horn wires out just to see if something there was wrong. Doesn't seem to be.

I'm about 90% operational but would still like both brake lights if anyone has an idea.

[Cobra,1]

Trace out the brown wire.
Cart wiring harness shows brown is brake lites, yellow is signal lite.
Do not assume a connection is good. Check with volt meter on both sides of any connection.
95% of all my electrical,espeacially 12 volt issues were found to be bad,corroded connections. Also check to be sure bulb is good. Rear lites are dual element bulbs, bad bulb or dirty socket may be problem.


Your close to complete as everything else works. Sounds like just a minor problem completing the circuit to that bulb 😊

[brundl3fly]

Agreed. And already checked bulb. ;)

I know the wire works as I've switch from white to brown wire on that side. When white's connected the signal works. When brown is connected the brake works. Just can't get both!

If I can get the switch people to give me more info on the wires I might be OK. Their diagram shows the purple wire is a single wire that controls both brake lights. In my case I think that is the yellow wire, just from all the testing that's taken place getting me as far as I am.

When I press the brake pad I do get 12v at the brown wire which makes sense because the only thing that pad's doing is completing the circuit from the red wire on the fuse block. It seems that whatever part of the switch is supposed to be sending from the cart's brown wire to both the rear lights isn't working properly (or is somehow still not hooked up properly). The hazard flashers work fine too, btw.

[brundl3fly]

Well nothing like a few more hours of troubleshooting and then taking the cart out for a round of golf to solve your problems. :)

In the end I got one brake light to work and had left it at that. Then recently my wife and I were out and she was driving. I noticed on one hole there was a front turn signal on which was weird. Found out she had the brake pedal down and I'd simply reversed the wire from the front and rear signal/brake lights. If I'd had assistance while I was doing my wiring I'd probably have noticed earlier. For the record if you get the Fat Cat light kit off Amazon here's what I discovered on the wiring for a TXT 48v:

Signal Switch Wire TXT Wire Purpose

Green Green Front Passenger Turn
Gray Red Front Driver Turn
Brown Yellow Rear Passenger Turn
White White Rear Driver Turn
Blue + Purple Horn
Yellow Brown Brakes
Black Black Ground
Red Red Positive

Hope this helps someone else out.