'87 Club car-(Bat)slow reverse,but sometimes gets faster speed

[junkzoo]

Hi, my first post here after finding your forum (Think i found a good one here )
I just bought a '87 Elect. Club Car(36v) from my cousin,and was going over a few things to get a "feel" for it and have a few concerns right off the bat.

The state of charge meter does not work.I'm a industrial electrical tech by trade so troubleshooting is not a problem for me. What i'm asking here is:What is the easiest way to get at the meter? Other than a "plug" (covering a screw perhaps?)at the top corners of the panel, i'm not sure how to get at the meter to check it for power and/or replace it if need be.

Also, i noticed reverse is slow most of the time and if i try the pedal a few times it [I]might[I] pick up a faster speed .Just wondering if the problem might be in the rheostat speed control (forward is fine so i'm leaning toward the select sw. or contactors) Not sure at this time if i hear anything picking up when i try it in reverse, will check that part out later today.

I plan to do a lot of looking on this site to learn more about my "new" cart,and searching here for threads relating to my current problems with it, but was hoping maybe i can get a few tips to answer my concerns , here.

Thanks!

[scottyb]

Welcome to BGW.

The battery meter is aftermarket. There are a few different types? Analog, led, and digital. They all use the same feed which is pack voltage positive & negative.
The cart is wired for half power reverse.

[junkzoo]

Thanks for the welcome.

It's a analog-Taylor Dunn brand on the face.

and i noticed when i pulled it out of the garage just now, reverse was acting just fine,, go figure.

Plan is to go over connections etc. ,and prob replace battery leads/connections soon also. Not that they are all that bad, just for the piece of mind thing. I'm just thinking i might have a "hot" connection here and there, since it looks like nothing preventitive maint. -wise was done on it recently.

[junkzoo]

Well, i poked around today, and found that the meter had wires off it, and the hot wire was disconnected @ the "+" battery post.I had the meter out and took leads to the neg and pos. leads off the batteries ,,and got nothing.I'm assuming that's all i needed to do to check the meter, right?
I'll still have to locate the old wires and probably run new ones anyway(since i have yet to locate the neg. wire.)
Also checked out the battery levels and found it took a gallon of distilled water to top them off (had a few cells that the plates were just starting to become exposed )
Winter plans are to replace all battery leads/jumpers and also upsize them(mainly cuz i have access to that kinda stuff @ work )

Also found a relay or whatever it was w/ one lead broken off at the plug in(male plug in terminal was broken flush @ the component) which i learned from the sticky prints here, just now was a reverse buzzer so now i don't really need to worry about that IMO.

Think i also located the problem with slow speeds at time in reverse,, a dirty/flakey contact @ the fwd/rev. switch,, and not that is taken care of

My neighbors are probably thinking i'm real nusto now, if they've seen me toolin around my 10 acres here in my "new" cart the last few days LOL.

[scottyb]

those meters are polarity sensitive, check it both ways before you chuck it

[junkzoo]

Originally Posted by scottyb

those meters are polarity sensitive, check it both ways before you chuck it

LOL, remember , i'm a 'lectrician,,, and note what part of my username is,,,junk , i tend not to throw ANYTHING away, until I make certain it's totally junk

Weird thing is, when i went straight to the batteries (36 volts sum points) i got a short deflection of the meter's needle, from full left to what i would call maybe 10 o' clock position,and then nothing afterwards.I also later reversed polarity just to see if i did have it backwards,,, no meter movement since the first and only time i thought i saw something.

Not sure what i should read off the cart's meter with my Fluke, but i did read not "open".

Correct me if i'm wrong, but is a battery meter just a plain old voltage meter?
Reason i'm asking is i have access to a decent selection of volt meters at work, digital (programable scales and input voltages) and a few regular old panel meters.

[scottyb]

panel meters are the best if you can get one in the correct range.

[junkzoo]

Originally Posted by scottyb

panel meters are the best if you can get one in the correct range.

yup, that's not problem