91 club car ignition change over

[pollockjes4]

Good evening. Brand new to the group. I am now the lucky owner of a 91 DS gas club car. I just installed a new starter and will be putting in a new key switch as well. I have completely dissected the wiring, switches and solenoid. i am thinking about doing away with the limit switches and putting in a key ignition. Can i use the same constant duty solenoid, or should i get a intermittent starter solenoid? will the starter generator still work as needed?

TIA

[meimk]

You'll need the continuous duty solenoid, and you need to have it stay energized the entire time the engine is running. Yes, the solenoid sends power to the starter to start the engine, but as the engine starts and picks up speed that same starter becomes a generator producing electric power. That solenoid needs to remain engaged to give that power a path back to your battery to keep it charged.

[DannyAbear]

Not true for all of them, mine has a diode across the solinoid to allow for charging; it is hard to find a schmatic showing it tho

[meimk]

Those that were originally built as key start (villagers,carryalls, etc) are different, but we're talking about the op's 91 DS.

[pollockjes4]

thanks for the feed back. I was going through the wiring in my head on the way to work and realized the solenoid would need to stay in/on to charge. Can i just take the wire that goes from the voltage regulator to the solenoid and connect to the battery instead to get a charge vs going through the solenoid? Update, she is running tonight!!

[meimk]

The red wire that stacks on the solenoid with the larger white wire is there so it only gets powered when the engine is running. Going straight to the battery with it may give you a current drain when the cart is off and parked. That larger white wire is the return path for the generator to charge the battery. It's a pretty simple system & it works.