Clean or not Clean out Club car Gas tank

[Shane dog95]

I have a 1996 Club car Gas powered golf cart, and I've been doing yearly maintenance on it+repainting front part and in the gas tank I see the fuel line with no filter on the end? on my chain saw and weed eater there's a small filter on the end so it won't suck up dirt, now why is there no filter on my golf car? should I drain all the Gas and then pull out the fuel line and put on a filter on the end of fuel line hose? or leave it alone? should I drain out all the old Gas, clean out the inside best I can and then put fresh gas in? or leave it alone?

[superpro56]

Theres no filter in the tank because there should be one if not two in-line to the carburetor. The chain saw and weed eater, in the interest of space, do not have in-line fuel filters. The in-line filters are all you need for this application.

[nwocart]

Originally Posted by Shane dog95

I have a 1996 Club car Gas powered golf cart, and I've been doing yearly maintenance on it+repainting front part and in the gas tank I see the fuel line with no filter on the end? on my chain saw and weed eater there's a small filter on the end so it won't suck up dirt, now why is there no filter on my golf car? should I drain all the Gas and then pull out the fuel line and put on a filter on the end of fuel line hose? or leave it alone? should I drain out all the old Gas, clean out the inside best I can and then put fresh gas in? or leave it alone?

draining out the old gas is never a bad idea, i try to run ethanol free so that I don't have gas go bad. That being said, unless you are taking the cart body apart to paint it or something similar, you can't get the fuel tank out without taking off the body so it's probably not worth it. I would siphon as much as you can, maybe throw some fresh gas in there and splash it around a little bit, siphon that out, and repeat 2-3 times. and I have fuel filters off of my tank on both lines, probably something you should look into if you don't have them already.

I have some small dirt chunks in teh bottom of my tank and I wanted to pull it and clean it, but I quickly learned that it is a feat within itself to remove the tank. SO i cleaned it best I could and put on new fuel line and filters.

[CP241]

Depends on how long it's been sitting and how old the gas is. If it's been sitting for a long time and the gas is nasty and stinky then as nwo said, you can't remove the tank without removing the rear body. But, you can siphon it out to almost dry. I then take an old towel and shove it down inside, and use a long pry bar to gently "scrub" the bottom and get all the rest of the old gas and dirt out of it. works pretty well

Then refill with fresh gas, new lines and filters. Wouldn't hurt to take the pump apart if it's the older aluminum style pump and give it a quick cleaning as well, those can get pretty nasty.

The pickup tube unscrews out of the top of the tank easily. And the vent at the top (cone thing) pulls straight out on a grommet. Not uncommon for those grommets to deteriorate and leave black crap all over the place (including the bottom of the tank) you want to make sure you can blow through the vent or it can inhibit proper fuel flow through the fuel pump to the carb (think pouring gas out of a non-vented gas can... glug... bubble... glug... but worse because there is no way for it to bubble or glug to get more gas out).

[88clubcarproject]

It is not hard to pull the body off a DS. Just don't forget the two bolts under the rear pan. I would clean it out if you are getting any rough running issues where fuel delivery might be a problem. I pulled mine on Saturday since I could see some debris was in the bottom.

That little pickup tube can get clogged before the trash ever makes it to the fuel filter.

My $0.02

[Shane dog95]

thanks for all your replies, but shouldn't there be a fuel filter on the end of the pick up tube that's in the gas tank? I'm thinking of cleaning out the gas tank, putting a filter on the end of the fuel pick up tube, unless I should not do that? has anyone ever done that? also has anyone ever had to clean a carburetor so it will run smother?

[Mooncarter]

Originally Posted by Shane dog95

thanks for all your replies, but shouldn't there be a fuel filter on the end of the pick up tube that's in the gas tank? I'm thinking of cleaning out the gas tank, putting a filter on the end of the fuel pick up tube, unless I should not do that? has anyone ever done that? also has anyone ever had to clean a carburetor so it will run smother?

I have, and have had several of these gas carts/carryalls. None of them bought new, but none of them have had a screen at the bottom of the pickup. As stated by other members above the filter(s) are all that are necessary. I'm not going to say OK go ahead and do it because I've never seen it done. Perhaps CC engineers had many reasons for not doing it; IDK. But, if you are determined to install a screen at the bottom, report your experience back here so we can all learn something.

[CP241]

Originally Posted by Shane dog95

thanks for all your replies, but shouldn't there be a fuel filter on the end of the pick up tube that's in the gas tank? I'm thinking of cleaning out the gas tank, putting a filter on the end of the fuel pick up tube, unless I should not do that? has anyone ever done that? also has anyone ever had to clean a carburetor so it will run smother?

With the 2 fuel filters inline I personally don't see a need for a screen at the bottom of the suction tube. Not that I even am sure how you would get one attached, the suction tube barely fits through the hole it threads into as-is. The suction tube almost rests right at the bottom of the tank, it will nearly suck every drip of gas out of the tank. I would think a screen would be more likely to clog with small sediment and water that may accumulate, as where it would normally easily get sucked up into the tube and caught by one of the larger filters, less likely to become restricted.

That's just my opinion anyway. I've never seen a screen in the bottom of any golf cart unless it's fuel injected, which is a completely different reasoning for the screen. exception being the older Yamaha's... and those always turn to absolute mush and create more problems than they solve.

AS for cleaning the carburetor to make it run "smoother".... you would have to define what you mean by smoother. Does it bog? ping? something else?

Usually unless it's flooding out, these seem to be pretty lenient when it comes to not "requiring" a squeaky clean carb (though that's always better, just saying I've pulled some nasty carbs off of carts that ran perfectly fine...) usually "smoother/better" running is accomplished by using the correct spark plug, adjusting the valve clearance to proper spec, clean air filter, and good fresh gas.

[Shane dog95]

well after removing some small rubber chunks in the bottom of tank, I figured out its from underneath the gas tank cap, I 'could' drain the tank, hook the same small tube duck tapped to the vacuum hose, to then vacuum out the small rubber pieces but I figured its not worth the hassle, if the gas line ever sucks up the small rubber pieces they will go threw the two in line fuel filters

[Shane dog95]

well I've just had motor trouble lately and since my golf carts a 1996 and I've never had the carburetor cleaned and had it for about 18 years, I thought I should clean the carburetor, but I figured out I got water in the oil somehow? I live in a Rural area, I store it outside but in Winter I store it in a barn with Concrete floor then, so I'm still not sure how the water got in the oil?, but it was causing my motor troubles, after an oil change+new oil filer+ new spark plug its like new now, ''for now'' anyway