Battery cables - What's up??

[sonicj]

Originally Posted by scottyb

Now we finally have the information I cruelly berated the poster for not providing .... and google on my first try I get the entire operators manual Go here> http://www.cyberpoet.net/ebay/centech.html

Print it and share it

wrong manual there genius!

Mayfair, you actually posted pics to 2 different pocket multimeters... anywho, here are the user manuals for both.

*edit* - added user manual for clamp meter.

[Mayfair]

Ok, since pics seem to be really helpful, I took some more. Since my new cables are longer, I'm now able to slide a battery out of the way to make more room.

Here are some better shot of my solenoid:







Here are some shots of the area around it:




There is a little green lite at the bottom of the controller that you can barely see in this pic, but it's lit, so I'm assuming that power is getting to it.








Run / Tow:



Wiring to the controller as well as the controller itself:









Switches on the drivers side (accessory toggle and horn)



The dash:



In case you were wondering what the cart looked like (I'm also fixing a blown headlight bulb)

[sonicj]

basic solenoid coil test... ok, here we go:

step 1:
- switch the cart ON and move the tow/run switch to RUN
- switch your multimeter to DC Volts. V
- touch a probe to each of the two small terminals.
- gently press the accelerator until you hear a click. (gently in case something decides it suddenly wants to go!)
- read the voltage immediately after the click. what is it?
- ok, now what happens to this reading after the second click? does it stay high? or does it drop out?

if it stays high, then something is wrong with the solenoid. either the coil or the suppression diode. good news is, that solenoid is rebuild-able!

step 2:
if it drops out, run the test again, but instead of probing the small contacts on the solenoid, disconnect the white connector feeding those contacts and probe the 2 pins inside the connector coming from the golf cart. if the voltage reads constant after pressing the gas pedal. its definitely something wrong with the solenoid. if the voltage drops out, the problem is on the cart side of the connector and needs to traced in the direction of the source.

let us know what you find! cheers!
-sj

btw, very nice workspace you have there!

[langstonjones]

Originally Posted by scottyb

you best develop a thicker skin if you intend to survive forum life. Now we finally have the information I cruelly berated the poster for not providing ....

I personally don't care who agrees with who 100%!! Your opinion has officially been logged in my handy dandy blues clues opinion tracker. Feel better? I was simply stating to take it easy on the guy. To help? or Not to help? very simple decision. Slamming the guy would fall into the latter. If you thought the guy was an idiot and wasting your time, so be it. Next!! Move on and help the next guy with post #30,xxx,xxx,xxx,xxx,xxx....... Are you the be all end all authority on every help thread? If so we will just sit back and politely lurk. Only if you allow us to though, of course. I totally understand that DIY projects aren't for everyone and you need to have some basic understanding, but he was upfront with his lack thereof & still had people willing to help. As far as the meter goes, an owner's manual wasn't gonna help him as they just point out the obvious to an experienced person. The symbols don't change between a $2.00 harbor freight meter that he's using and a $2000.00 Fluke 196 scopemeter that I use.

[langstonjones]

Originally Posted by sonicj

wrong manual there genius!

literally

[scottyb]

Originally Posted by sonicj

wrong manual there genius!

Mayfair, you actually posted pics to 2 different pocket multimeters... anywho, here are the user manuals for both.

*edit* - added user manual for clamp meter.

You made my point sonic. The correct manual was easy to find. And you can call me stupid for posting the wrong link, I'm okay with that, See? ... no blood. And now you can talk intelligibly about how to use his particular meter, which was where it seemed the confusion was stemming from. See his original remark about my meter doesn't have this or that..... personally I find that type of response less helpful than a response with a make and model # of the meter we are talking about just like right now in the pics I see he has a DCX cart. Is this mentioned anywhere else? Sometimes people want help but helping them is like pulling teeth just to get the basic information.

[Mayfair]

Originally Posted by sonicj

basic solenoid coil test... ok, here we go:

step 1:
- switch the cart ON and move the tow/run switch to RUN
- switch your multimeter to DC Volts. V
- touch a probe to each of the two small terminals.
- gently press the accelerator until you hear a click. (gently in case something decides it suddenly wants to go!)
- read the voltage immediately after the click. what is it?
- ok, now what happens to this reading after the second click? does it stay high? or does it drop out?

if it stays high, then something is wrong with the solenoid. either the coil or the suppression diode. good news is, that solenoid is rebuild-able!

Hmmmm .... I may have already run this test. I mentioned it back on page 3 ( post 48 ).

Here were my findings:

I held the leads on the little terminals, and I moved the "Tow Run" switch from Tow to Run. When doing so, after the first click, I got a reading of I think it was 50.1 ( hard to see because the second click comes fast). Once the second click comes, it bottoms out to all zeros.

BTW all of the "clicks" that I am hearing seem to be coming from the solenoid and nowhere else.

The part that is a little different here though is that you mention pushing the pedal until I hear a click. Unfortunately I don't remember hearing anything as a result of pushing the pedal. I'll definitely try it again tonight though when I get home. Thanks!

Originally Posted by sonicj

step 2:
if it drops out, run the test again, but instead of probing the small contacts on the solenoid, disconnect the white connector feeding those contacts and probe the 2 pins inside the connector coming from the golf cart. if the voltage reads constant after pressing the gas pedal. its definitely something wrong with the solenoid. if the voltage drops out, the problem is on the cart side of the connector and needs to traced in the direction of the source.

let us know what you find! cheers!
-sj

btw, very nice workspace you have there!

This part has me confused a bit. I don't remember seeing a white wire, however I'm not at home right now to check it out so perhaps there is. If I remember right, there are two little wires going to the little terminals (black and red) and two fat wires (cables) going to the top of the fat terminals which I believe are both black (originally one was red coming from the battery positive however I replaced it with a black one). I believe there is also 2 smaller wires that attach to the same fat terminal as the positive cable from the battery. If I remember right, one was all red, and the other was red with a white stripe however again, I'm not home so I'm not 100% sure.

I REALLY appreciate your help sonicj, and I can't wait to get home and run your tests! With help from members like yourself, langstonjones, and others, I'm feeling confident that together we'll get this figured out!
Thanks!

BTW I'm going to bring home some alligator clips tonight from work to hopefully make running these tests a LOT easier!

[Mayfair]

Originally Posted by Mayfair

This part has me confused a bit. I don't remember seeing a white wire, however ....

Nevermind, I blew up the picture that you posted and I re-read your post and I now realize that you meant the white connector, not a white wire (duh .. ). Sorry for the confusion. I'll check it out when I get home.

Thanks!

[Mayfair]

Originally Posted by sonicj

basic solenoid coil test... ok, here we go:

step 1:
- switch the cart ON and move the tow/run switch to RUN
- switch your multimeter to DC Volts. V - touch a probe to each of the two small terminals.
- gently press the accelerator until you hear a click. (gently in case something decides it suddenly wants to go!)
- read the voltage immediately after the click. what is it?

- ok, now what happens to this reading after the second click? does it stay high? or does it drop out?

if it stays high, then something is wrong with the solenoid. either the coil or the suppression diode. good news is, that solenoid is rebuild-able!

Ok, I ran the tests and here are the results.

After runnng this test, I got a reading of 49.7 after the first click, and 0.00 after the second click. Pressing the pedal after either click resulted in no movement at all.

Originally Posted by sonicj

step 2:
if it drops out, run the test again, but instead of probing the small contacts on the solenoid, disconnect the white connector feeding those contacts and probe the 2 pins inside the connector coming from the golf cart. if the voltage reads constant after pressing the gas pedal. its definitely something wrong with the solenoid. if the voltage drops out, the problem is on the cart side of the connector and needs to traced in the direction of the source.

let us know what you find! cheers!
-sj

Running this test, the voltage went from 49.9, and then to 0.00 after pressing the pedal. The problem is somewhere other than the soleniod huh?

Originally Posted by sonicj

btw, very nice workspace you have there!

Thank you!!

Unfortunately the garage is kinda full right now, but once the cart is at the campground, it'll free up some space for me to get into more trouble.

Onto some more pics ...

Troubleshooting further, I finally figured out how to get the harness apart from the circut board (What a PITA), and here is what the board looks like









Tomorrow I'm going to get some electrical cleaner and clean it all up and get it ready to assemble again.

Here is what the pins coming from the controller look like. I'll clean these up as well.



Here is the harness itself. I gently tugged on each wire and they are all intact with the connector.





Here is the connector coming from the solenoid. It looks kinda crappy, but the wires going through it are intact and seem to be making a good connection.



I was looking for the connection to the throttle switch, and after jacking the cart up, I found it underneath. Here are some pics of the throttle switch which appears to be a plunger type style. I did an ohm test (upside down horseshoe ) test on the switch here and it tested fine.



I forget what this switch is called, but it's located in/behind a gray box under an access panel. It has something to do with the throttle as well.



Here are the wires from both switches running up to the battery area from under the cart.

[Mayfair]

Apparently I could only post a few pics at a time, so here are the rest


Here is a pic of the throttle plunger switch



Some pics of what it looks like under the access panel. The gray box that I mentioned earlier is right behind the black wire/meter lead that you see in this pic





And finally a pic of what it looks like inside of that gray box



Tomorrow I'm going to clean up the circuit board and put it all back together and hopefully everything will be fine. If not, any new thoughts?

Thanks!!

Oh yeah, I ran another test before taking everything apart and I'm not sure if it's normal or not.

I put one lead from my meter onto the battery negative, and the other on each of the fat terminals on the solenoid. On one terminal I got the 49.9 reading (I think that is what it was), and on the other terminal It read something similar, however it SLOOOOOOWLY started to drop off to 0.00 after turning the key off (I'm pretty sure thats how I did the test). Shouldn't the other terminal have dropped to 0.00 immediately, or is this bleed of thing normal?