late 80s ezgo meltdown

[pulk]

Sorry in advance but I am posting via my phone from camp.

So I picked up a late 80s electric ezgo yesterday evening so that I would have something to get me around the hunting land. It ain't exactly pretty but it was set up for hunting and all I needed it to do was go from point a to point b. I drove it around where I bought it for maybe a hundred yards with no issue and loaded it up on my trailer.

So I arrive at camp about 2 hours ago and roll it off the trailer. Reverse seemed to work no problem. I went forward and the rear left wheel dug in to the plastic fender. I thought what in the heck is going on and started looking under the cart and I noticed a big coil/spring was red hot. Not that it explained the tire scrubbing issue but I wasn't sure if that was another problem.

So I keep trying to figure out what is going on with the ti re in the pouring rain while its dark but I don't know much about golf carts so I wanted to post my observations to see if there is any hope.

I put the cart in reverse and backed it up and the wheel/tire jumped back in to normal position. I then pulled the seat to have a look underneath and noticed the motor was sitting up really high compared to where it was when the guy I bought it from. It was nearly flush with the top of the batteries whereas before I am pretty sure it was much lower.

With the seat off I hit the pedal to go forward and it took off really fast. I don't remember it having that kind of juice granted I did fully charge batteries before bringing it out here. But I noticed too that each time I went forward one of the battery terminals would spark. I tried it several more times and each time it sparked then I noticed the lead under the terminal had melted and the post bolt pulled right off. And that is petty much how I left it.

Is there anyone that could perhaps share what might be going on? Maybe the motor is not attached to the frame properly and it was causing an electrical failure? What about the wheel issue!

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[scottyb]

The person who sold you the cart is rather lucky or criminal.

The differential is moving so check the leaf springs and their U bolts?

The throttle is not shutting off so the resistor will melt. (And drain the batteries)
And the battery cable is loose so it just melted a battery terminal.


Call the SOB you bought it from and get a refund

[golfcarfixer]

I agree 100% with what Scotty said.

[mauistardog]

yep what scotty said. Check the speed board, most likey it shifted or pivoted back toward the rear of the cart on the nut and touching the second copper nut. pull it back toward the front of the cart.
joe

[pulk]

Thanks for the replies. I am in the woods now but will have a good look at the cart in a few hours. I really don't think the guy had any idea I would run in to these problems. I drove it around on his property and it had no issues at all. Just my luck though, take a week of vacation and look what I get for it!

I would rather just fix it and be done. Honestly, after seeing all the cool stuff folks have done with their carts here I am tempted to make a bigger project out of it.

Thanks again, I will follow back up later.