Picked up a 1990 ds, now have some electrical questions

[cobolnofun]

Overall the cart seems decent for 27 years old. At some point in its life, someone had way too much fun and crashed into what I assume was a brick wall. So it is slated for my winter project of getting the frame welded up in a few spots and replacing basically the whole suspension. I will also be replacing the batteries at that point, since I believe they are on their last leg.

It has 5 year old Trojan batteries, which I tested at only 37v after a full charge and some rest time. The guy I bought it from did a discharge test and came back with 47 minutes. Water levels are above the plates and below the neck. Not very good, but we are using it to go less than 1 mile round trip in the neighborhood… so hopefully they can hold out till winter.

Till then I am just doing maintenance and making sure it does not burn the house down. This brings me to my questions!

1) I noticed the red wire going from the charger/fuse to the FR switch is melted at the charger. The fuse is good, but the plastic cover is melted. I used my laser temp gun to see how hot it is getting and recorded 260 degrees on the bracket itself during the high amp portion of a charge. Then it drops to ~150 degrees during the lower amp portion. My assumption here is the cable is shorting to the bracket somehow but I don’t know if that is a symptom or a root cause. Anyone experience anything like this before? Is this from the batteries poor state?






2) After looking at the wiring diagrams it looks like the cart is wired correctly for a 1990, however the solenoid looks to be the tower style from the 1997 and up? Are these interchangeable or should this be reverted to the cylinder style it came with originally?




3) My v glide is missing its cover…. Is that a problem?


4) Non electrical question: Is this spindle arm supposed to be this close to the tire? Or was it damaged like the rest of the suspension? (disregard all the gunk, that is this weekends clean up area)



Thanks in advance.

[Raystar57]

The fuse looks like it has been soldered over with a piece of wire.
It's no longer a fuse and can cause wire meltdown.
It's is a replaceable item.
Pic shows what a new one should look like (fuse) but it's for a later DS.
It may not be wire soldered and may look like that on the older DS.
Someone else may know.
That temp is darn hot so I think there is something else shorted going on there.
A battery issue can cause it. You probably have a bad battery in the chain.

The cable is gone and needs replaced of course, I would do all of them.
The green corrosion has shown up due to the insulation being melted off the wire.

The spindle arm is close but not uncommon to be close.
My 2003 DS is close like that.
It could be bent a little but it has a natural bend in it.

[NoleFan4Ever]

Wow that is a lot to discuss....lol!

1- Check that fuse - may be jumped. I also see that the wire is moderately frayed and is definite causing you some of the heating problem as there is less wire to carry the current. I would replace it, I believe it is 10 gauge but double check to be sure. While you are there, break loose all the connections and re-tighten them to insure a clean and tight fit. Any looseness will generate heat. Do the same all the way to the batteries and every connection you can get too. Be sure nothing is corroded or frayed to the point it is speculative in regards to current transfer. Test each battery too.

2- As long as the solenoid is wired correctly and is the appropriate amperage, it should work fine.

3- Yes, you need to get a cover. They are on eBay http://www.ebay.com/itm/Club-Car-Gol...lUh0sM&vxp=mtr

4- That is close, mine has at least a 1/2" or more. But if it is not touching you are safe. Spindle definitely could have been damaged in a front end accident. Be sure your alignment is correct or at least close to being right or you are going to eat tires and lose some driveability.

[cobolnofun]

UPDATE:

i ordered the v glide cover and a new fuse and they will get here next week and i will install them both.

In the mean time i thought i might as well swap out that wire to isolate the problem. Drove it around the block and through it on the charger... 105 was the highest temp recorded so i would say the bad wire was the major cause of the issue here.

Unfortunately checking the batteries this morning i found i do infarct have 1 bad battery. 5 of the batteries are at 6.33ish volts. 1 battery is 4.2. The bad battery is also the battery with the negative terminal hook up for everything.

Knowing i am going to get new batteries this winter... will driving it with the bad battery be a big deal until then?

[NoleFan4Ever]

You are right, it can limp by and keep you going. No one would tell you that you should do it, but none of us can say that it will not work as obviously it will.

You just need to stay close to home or as far as you feel the pack is capable of. And please remember, as voltage drops, amperage will rise. So running 35/36 volts on a cart is not going to hurt much, but if you travel far and the pack voltage gets really low, you will be putting all your electrical equipment through a lot of high amp flow...

Good Luck with it all!

[LukeL]

I have a couple extra V glide covers if you need them

[cobolnofun]

Nole, so i was thinking about what you were saying and decided to see how far is to far with the cart. Turns out it is a little less than 2 miles before i was at a crawl going up a slight hill. So i started looking into the batteries more to get a better idea of what exactly is happening.

Last night i unplugged it from the charger (had finished charging the night before but was still plugged in) And got 35.9~36 volts for the whole pack. Then i went through each battery individually and took the specific gravity. It was 90 degrees in the garage if that makes any difference

1
J3
4.23 v
1.275
1.125
1.275

2
J3
6.35 v
1.25
1.275
1.27

3
E3
6.34 v
1.25
1.25
1.27

4
J3
6.36 v
1.275
1.275
1.275

5
J3
6.39 v
1.275
1.275
1.25

6
E3
6.35 v
1.265
1.275
1.275

So after seeing this i though "this doesn't look so bad at all for 4 year old batteries, just 1 bad cell"

Then i drove it about 1 mile, checked the voltage again and got 34.7 volts. Which if i am thinking correctly, is a very quick discharge...

So i am sure the answer to this is going to be Replace all the batteries, which is fine. But i am still holding out hope i can wait until after i clean up and repair the battery trays and frame.

Is it feasible to swap out battery 1 with an el-cheap sacrificial battery for a few months or is the discharge rate for the other 5 batteries going to prevent any gains?

Also i have read a few articles about charging just the bad battery with a 6 volt charger in an attempt to get it back up to par, but i am a little unclear if my case fits that bill?

Thanks again.

[NoleFan4Ever]

Yes and Yes.

You can replace just that one battery with a good used one just to buy you time since you will be later replacing all of them. (and I would do that) Just be sure it is of like kind. (Similar Ah and size)

And yes, hook up your 6v charger to the one battery and place it on the highest setting for 15 mins and then the lowest for 24 hours or so if it is a trickle like mine. Mine will do 10 & 2 (40 is for the 200 amp boost). It may do something, but I am doubtful since it seems to be just one cell.