87 36v No power up hill

[mgarlock]

First time cart owner and first post. Have searched the forum pretty extensivly for information. Great forum!

Cart is an 87 Club Car 36V with new batteries and new factory speed controller from previous owner. Cart does great on flat gound. Unfortunatley I live in a hilly community in Georgia. It makes it up the hill but I could walk faster! I have checked all voltages on the batteries and are all 6.25 give or take. I have filled with distilled water but they only needed very little water. Full charge. This cart has 5 solenoids with speed coils of the solenoids. They are rusty but not broken. Could they be the issue? I also read that 4ga wire could help. Any ideas and insight are appreciated. Thanks in advance for the help.

[shadowman]

4 gage cable will help but you have to do every 6 gage cable to 4 not just battery cables........1st thing is to make sure your 4 speed solenoids are working...............jack rear of cart up put in gear and slowly press pedal......1st click =nothing its the master as the 2nd click your wheels should start slowly turning.....3rd click wheels turn a bit faster......check all speeds if you get to a solenoid and wheels don,t pick up or nothing happens that shouls be the source of problem.................take a good look at the solenoids where they are bolted down i can,t tell you how many i have seen cracked around the base.............................................. .......

[OLD MEC]

What you have is the early style of speed control ( THAT ALL CART COMPANIES USED AND SOME STILL DO ) but since the mid 90's have been replaced by modern solid state controls with additional battery pack voltages. Your system uses resistor coils and a series of solenoids to switch resistors on and off that had to heat up to control flow of power to motors. As to the ability to climb hills you have to remember that STOCK golf carts ( battery or gas ) were made to ONLY climb very minor hills included in golf course design and go no faster than 12-14 MPH MAX for members protection. You have run into the same problem that many golfers found once powered golf carts came into existance after WW2? In the 1960s some manufacturers added gas engines of minium horse power ( again to keep speed down ) that helped but very little. In recent years as carts became popular for everything but golf we see larger gas engines and solid state controls and higher voltage battery pack carts being built. Now with modern carts being altered ( still required to hold speed to 12-14 MPH on courses STOCK CONDITION but can be programed to do near 20 PLUS MPH ) to sell to the market wanting power and speed. The expense of upgrading your cart to pull hills would be some where around $1000. Even if you went to a gas cart you will run into lots of the same limiting factors such as speed and power that again get very expensive upgrades? Unless you are a mechanic versed in electric's or gas you would be better off to trade up to a 2000 or later model cart of major brand manufacturing ( Club Car, Ezgo, Yamaha ), AFTER you spend time researching what would best serve your needs. Like an auto you can get larger motors even in one case a AC powered cart special ordered, different gear ratios, larger tires and wheels, lift kits, different body styles, etc.
Things that might help hill climbing would be ( GOOD MAJOR BRAND HD GOLF CART BATTERYS ), upgrading to 48 volts ( limited to batterys and solenoid but much shorter life for stock 36 volt parts ), Yes 4 guage cables DO HELP SOME BUT ALL LARGE CABLES MUST BE CHANGED, Battery, F&R switch, Motor cables, cables from and to resistor-solenoid board unit.
This forum is always willing and ready to give you input about options and good and bad points on a particular brand of carts.
GOOD LUCK AND I KNOW YOU WILL ENJOY YOUR CART EVEN MORE OVER TIME.

[mgarlock]

Thanks guys, I will jack it up and see what I get. If the speed coils (resister wire) are not broken I assume they are good. Is that a good assumption.

[Hotdogboy]

Hoping to get some help on a similar issue. Have a 36 volt 1987 Club Car DS. The cart is running well but will only achieve 7mph on new, fully charged batteries.

Jacked cart put in fwd and pressed pedal. I heard 4 clicks from solenoid and wheels spin up. Our Cart has 5 solonoids and the last doesn't seem to click would this make it badis bad. Would this be a reasonable reason why we are not achieving full speed (12-14mph)? Should I hear 5 clicks? Should I order and change? Any suggestions or recommendations.

Thanks in advance!

[cjpenny89]

I played with these when I first started in carts and quickly sold and upgraded to different carts. Now if I had those carts I would convert them to solid state carts. I do have a few controllers and a newer style wire harness if anyone wants to convert. you will need more then the wire harness and controller but it is a good start.
Keep in mind that when climbing hills the cart builds torque at lower speeds but it will climb just not at top speed. Hitting 12mph can be tough seems like I constantly got about 10mph on gravel and in my yard and on pavment those carts I had might have hit 11-12 MPH.
good luck

[Flatliner]

There are 5 solenoids, the first one is on/off when throttle enaged. Each click fires each solenoid. It's possible a few are bad and need to be replaced. What you are hearing are the microswitches as you press on the throttle. Try this with key off and you will hear/ feel each click. That is not the solenoids you are hearing.