Club Car DS - long delay when push down pedal

[nwocart]

Originally Posted by Springbok

Mine does nothing during the delay. Then it just comes to life.

ah mine would run the starter but just not take off or engage until i found the sweet spot

[bigkahuna75]

Yeah mine is dead silent if I press too much. Sometimes after 6-7 seconds I can hear it start going if I press all the way but most of the time nothing happens.

Even if I barely press it there is still a 2-3 second delay.

Going to do the zip tie mod today so I'll keep messing to see if I can figure out this issue.

[Fairtax4me]

Lots to try to address here and I haven't had the time to sit down and try to explain some of this stuff but here's an attempted short version.

Take the seat off, put the shifter limit switch in maintenance mode. (Pull out the yellow cam and flip it 180 and let it go back in.) Now Key On, FnR in N press the pedal and you can run the engine in neutral and Watch what exactly the starter does when you press the pedal.

Press the pedal about an inch just enough to get the throttle switch the click. The solenoid should clunk, and the starter should start spinning.
If the solenoid clunks but the starter does NOT spin, or it makes a short 1/4 rotation and then stalls, that's a power delivery problem. Battery is low on charge, bad cables, bad connections at battery/solenoid/Starter gen or bad ground connections at frame or at the engine.
The starter belt can make a difference here and using the wrong belt can place the belt up too high in the starter pulley which makes it more difficult for the starter to turn the engine. I only use original club car belts because of this. Most aftermarket belts are too wide to fit the starter pulley properly.
The starter itself could be at fault if the brushes are worn out, the commutator is burned, or worst case one of the field coils is shorted and is not making a strong enough magnetic field.

If the starter spins, but the Belt and the engine do not spin. Belt is loose, worn, or the wrong belt. Again here, having the correct belt makes a difference. A belt that is too wide to sit all the way down in the pulley will not have enough grip on the pulley surfaces and even if you tighten the snot out of it it, can still slip.

Starter spins, belt spins, engine spins and turns over, chugga chugga chugga. (Or if your drive clutch is worn out you get a Clink Clink Clink)
This situation is "Crank, but no fire". This can be several things. Most of the time in my experience this is due to the carb being dirty, or the spark plug is worn out or fouled.
A dirty carb makes the starting fuel mixture LEAN. A Lean mixture will not ignite with a cold engine. So most of the time this happens when you first start the cart for the day, or if the cart has sat for several hours. Press the pedal and maybe you have to finesse the pedal position to get it to start is almost always a lean mixture and can be corrected by cleaning the carb and/or making an adjustment to the idle mixture needle or throttle lever. If you press the pedal down far and it chugga chuggas for a few seconds and doesn't start, then you press the choke button in for a second or two and it fires up and starts to run, that's always because the starting fuel mixture is too lean and something needs to be cleaned or adjusted.

Some exceptions are a failing ignition coil or igniter, or poor grounds for the coil and igniter module. Either of these conditions can cause a weak spark which will make starting more difficult.
Another would be low compression, but usually this is coupled with burning oil, so it's pretty obvious once the engine is running if compression is low enough to cause an issue, it's probably going to smoke pretty good.

Pretty much the only time these motors ever flood is when the float needle in the carb sticks open and the carb dumps fuel into the engine all night while it's parked. The next day it's full to the brim and if you try to start it it hydrolocks because there's so much fuel in it it can't turn. Usually when this happens you pull out the dipstick and it's filled almost to the top because there's literally a gallon of gasoline in the crankcase. The air filter will probably be soaked and the air box will be fuel of fuel or it will be dripping out of the bottom of the box.

[Kevin37B]

Good post 4 ,Thank you .

[bigkahuna75]

Originally Posted by Fairtax4me

Lots to try to address here and I haven't had the time to sit down and try to explain some of this stuff but here's an attempted short version.

Take the seat off, put the shifter limit switch in maintenance mode. (Pull out the yellow cam and flip it 180 and let it go back in.) Now Key On, FnR in N press the pedal and you can run the engine in neutral and Watch what exactly the starter does when you press the pedal.

Press the pedal about an inch just enough to get the throttle switch the click. The solenoid should clunk, and the starter should start spinning.
If the solenoid clunks but the starter does NOT spin, or it makes a short 1/4 rotation and then stalls, that's a power delivery problem. Battery is low on charge, bad cables, bad connections at battery/solenoid/Starter gen or bad ground connections at frame or at the engine.
The starter belt can make a difference here and using the wrong belt can place the belt up too high in the starter pulley which makes it more difficult for the starter to turn the engine. I only use original club car belts because of this. Most aftermarket belts are too wide to fit the starter pulley properly.
The starter itself could be at fault if the brushes are worn out, the commutator is burned, or worst case one of the field coils is shorted and is not making a strong enough magnetic field.

If the starter spins, but the Belt and the engine do not spin. Belt is loose, worn, or the wrong belt. Again here, having the correct belt makes a difference. A belt that is too wide to sit all the way down in the pulley will not have enough grip on the pulley surfaces and even if you tighten the snot out of it it, can still slip.

Starter spins, belt spins, engine spins and turns over, chugga chugga chugga. (Or if your drive clutch is worn out you get a Clink Clink Clink)
This situation is "Crank, but no fire". This can be several things. Most of the time in my experience this is due to the carb being dirty, or the spark plug is worn out or fouled.
A dirty carb makes the starting fuel mixture LEAN. A Lean mixture will not ignite with a cold engine. So most of the time this happens when you first start the cart for the day, or if the cart has sat for several hours. Press the pedal and maybe you have to finesse the pedal position to get it to start is almost always a lean mixture and can be corrected by cleaning the carb and/or making an adjustment to the idle mixture needle or throttle lever. If you press the pedal down far and it chugga chuggas for a few seconds and doesn't start, then you press the choke button in for a second or two and it fires up and starts to run, that's always because the starting fuel mixture is too lean and something needs to be cleaned or adjusted.

Some exceptions are a failing ignition coil or igniter, or poor grounds for the coil and igniter module. Either of these conditions can cause a weak spark which will make starting more difficult.
Another would be low compression, but usually this is coupled with burning oil, so it's pretty obvious once the engine is running if compression is low enough to cause an issue, it's probably going to smoke pretty good.

Pretty much the only time these motors ever flood is when the float needle in the carb sticks open and the carb dumps fuel into the engine all night while it's parked. The next day it's full to the brim and if you try to start it it hydrolocks because there's so much fuel in it it can't turn. Usually when this happens you pull out the dipstick and it's filled almost to the top because there's literally a gallon of gasoline in the crankcase. The air filter will probably be soaked and the air box will be fuel of fuel or it will be dripping out of the bottom of the box.

Thank you I'll go through this process and report back! Also going to do maintenance today - new oil filter, air filter, spark plug, fluids, diff fluid, etc.

Added a mirror and rear seat system yesterday and just waiting for seat belts and reflectors for it to be street legal here.

Guessing I might need to add the heavy duty leafs if going to be taking my kids on the back.

[Springbok]

Originally Posted by bigkahuna75

Guessing I might need to add the heavy duty leafs if going to be taking my kids on the back.

Be aware that some heavy-duty leaf srpings can make your cart ride like a Sherman tank when not loaded down. There is a medium-duty leaf option that we put on my in-law's 2005 Club Car DS cart that has struck a nice balance between ride quality and load-handling.

[bigkahuna75]

Originally Posted by Springbok

Be aware that some heavy-duty leaf srpings can make your cart ride like a Sherman tank when not loaded down. There is a medium-duty leaf option that we put on my in-law's 2005 Club Car DS cart that has struck a nice balance between ride quality and load-handling.

Good point - I found a 3 spring option vs the 4 spring.

My kids are each 70 lbs so that's 140+ the rear seat kits 100 lbs - I'm 210 and my wife is 140.

So total about 500 lbs. It will only be used on roads not off road or grass so probably won't matter too much if ride is a bit stiff.

[Springbok]

If you’re mostly on roads and flat, smooth ground you should be ok with HD springs. Where we live we run on both roads and semi-rough forest trails and hills.