PD3 Charger tripping wall breaker

[kinzerhaus]

2013 Precedent with PD3 charger is clicking when plugged to cart but never kicking on at all. Took charger apart and couldn't get a voltage reading on the input cord. The red wire seemed soft and possibly not intact inside the insulation. Replaced the 120volt input cord and as soon as I plugged the PD3 into the wall it popped the house breaker. It doesn't pop the PD3s built in breaker. Tried switching the input cable connection s (black and red) in case I had a polarity issue and popped the breaker again. Thinking there is a short in the transformer. Is there a possibility of a short somewhere else?
Cart charges great when using friends PD3 on same wall outlet

[Fairtax4me]

If it’s tripping your house breaker the short is in your AC cord. The hot wire got pinched or wires got connected to the wrong places. Typical replacement power cord wire colors should be black for line voltage (hot), white for neutral, and green for earth (ground). Where do you have a red wire?

The transformer does not get any power until the relay in the charger clicks on (the click you hear after the DC cord is plugged into the cart). That requires 48v input from the cart and ground from the OBC in the cart for the relay to engage.

[kinzerhaus]

My original cable - and not sure it was a factory cable- Black went to the fuse, red went to the ammeter and green went to the relay. The original cable showed 0 volts when plugged in. I tried to replace with a similar gauge cord I already had. That cord was black, white, and green. I ran black to the fuse, white to the ammeter and green to the relay. This cause the house breaker to pop. switched white and black connections and house breaker popped again. Connected the original cord back up and no tripping of the breaker. Plugged replacement cord into the wall with nothing connected to it and breaker did not pop.

[Fairtax4me]

Did this charger ever work? The way you describe it being hooked up before, if that’s accurate, it should not have worked.

Someone probably replaced that cord before. All the ones I’ve seen have black white and green.
Black is hot, goes to the breaker in the bottom front corner.
White is neutral, and goes to the white wire on the bottom of the transformer coil.
Green is ground and should be bolted to the metal case right next to where the ac cord comes in.

None of these should go to the ammeter! The Ammeter is on the DC OUTPUT side of the transformer and is not and should not ever be connected to the AC input in any way.
The way you hooked it up, you shorted the hot wire straight to ground which is why your house breaker was tripping.

Can you take a photo of inside the charger and where the wires go? You may just be chasing your tail on this because the way it sounds like it was hooked up it may have damaged parts of the charger and you may have to spend close to $300 to get it working properly again. But we can figure that out once you get the wires connected properly.

[greg-g]

I think two of you are not talking about the same chord I amp meter does not go to the AC line

[rib33024]

The OP said it was hooked up like this. And Fairtax4me said that is not the way it is supposed to be hooked up. I'm not sure what you are talking about greg-g ?? Tell us more

Originally Posted by greg-g

I think two of you are not talking about the same chord I amp meter does not go to the AC line

Originally Posted by kinzerhaus

My original cable - and not sure it was a factory cable- Black went to the fuse, red went to the ammeter and green went to the relay. The original cable showed 0 volts when plugged in. I tried to replace with a similar gauge cord I already had. That cord was black, white, and green. I ran black to the fuse, white to the ammeter and green to the relay.

Originally Posted by Fairtax4me

None of these should go to the ammeter! The Ammeter is on the DC OUTPUT side of the transformer and is not and should not ever be connected to the AC input in any way.

[rib33024]

I doubt greg-g will be back with an answer

[TahoeDawgZ71]

Please see the correct schematic for a PowerDrive 3 charger. Your best best is to ohm out the cord from one end to the other and not pay attention to wire color. I have seen several aftermarket cords that were not color coded correctly when compared to the factory cord. An ohm meter will allow you to identify the correct wire, regardless of color.

[kinzerhaus]

Yes the charger did work perfectly for about 2 years. Will have to take a pic of the wiring inside. Found out on Saturday that my local Golf Cart shop will test and diagnose a charger for free. So I put the original cord back in the charger and took it in. Explained everything I had tried. They plugged it in on the test bench and lo and behold it worked perfectly. They said hey there's a problem with your cart cause this thing works fine. Problem is the cart charged right up with a friends PD3 same outlet.
Took it back home and it works just fine so far. So time will tell, but wondering if my charger was too weak to charge the batteries and neighbors was strong enough. With the red input cable feeling soft near the connector might be that replacing that was all it needed. Well that and a ride in the back of the pickup.

[NoleFan4Ever]

Originally Posted by kinzerhaus

-snip-
but wondering if my charger was too weak to charge the batteries and neighbors was strong enough. With the red input cable feeling soft near the connector might be that replacing that was all it needed. Well that and a ride in the back of the pickup.

The transformers are relatively the same, so that would most likely not be it. I have on several occasions opened up Powerdrive Charges and only pulled and reseated every connection and then the charger worked fine. (It was just the connection)