96 ezgo intermittent operation

[Price_l]

Been looking around on the forum trying to diagnose my prob. My cart has recently started acting weird. Sometimes I jump on it and it's fine. Other times it won't move. The solinoid is "clicking" when I press the pedal but won't go. I've done most if not all of the trouble shooting I've found on the forums. I've got my 38 or so volts (36v cart) on my solinoid but I'm pretty sure I had that on the battery side and the controller side (is this right?). I also checked the white wire on the controller itself. It appeared to be getting the correct voltage and voltage change with pedal pushed. With all that being said, it leads me to believe that the controller is going bad. It just puzzles me that it's intermittent. And i also noticed that the post with the two cables attached to it on my controller seems to be loose. Loose like in the controller.

Heres a pic if it helps. Thanks in advance for any info.

[Knothead]

One thing you can check is to make sure you're getting good connection in the white 10-pin connector at the black & white wires. I had a similar problem recently. The black wire wasn't making good connection to the pin on the controller, inside the white connector.

[scottyb]

The controller case is showing signs of over heating. Deformed case indicates the component has gotten very hot more than once. This alone can lead to controller failure. If you don't find any obvious loose wire figure your control is failing intermittently. When it won't go try turning the key off, shift into neutral and then restart. Sometimes this reboots the control and they will work again. Either way you should be shopping for an upgraded controller/solenoid combo and some new cables.
Hope this helps and welcome to BGW

[Price_l]

Thanks guys. I will look into both of those and post back. Any good suggestions on a replacement controller? I'd settle for a used stock one if possible. Money is a little tight right now.

[scottyb]

I have just the controller for you. It is an Alltrax 300 amp stock replacement. I ordered 2 for a local business and they didn't take them. $199 plus shipping

[Price_l]

Thanks scottyb. Let me call a few local places and see if I can find a used one and I'll get back to you. Any idea how much it'll cost to ship to sc?

[Price_l]

Scottyb, which model number do you have?

[Price_l]

Got another question guys. While troubleshooting deeper today I ran a jumper wire from the B+ on my controller to the small post with red wires on the solenoid. The rear tires moved as they should. So does this mean the solenoid is bad? After messing with it for a while the cart ran fine for about 10 min (without the jumper). But right after that went back to just clicking and not moving. I can use the jumper and make it run again so I'm totally stumped. Any ideas?

[JohnnieB]

Could be a bad contacts in the solenoid, or it might be the high resistance in the wires/switches feed the solenoid coil.

What is the voltage between the two small posts on the solenoid when it clicks?
Should be full battery pack voltage, or mighty close to it.

If not, there's contacts, wires or or connections in the circuit that is highlighted on attached schematic.

If you do get full pack voltage, replace the solenoid.

[yurtle]

I can sell you a used stock controller and relatively new heavy duty solenoid. $150 including shipping.

PM me if interested.