Melted New Charger Handle on 36V Marathon

[bigoiboy]

So 2 week ago i finally got around to replacing the original 36v charger plug on my girl's farm cart, Its been loose for a long time.

I bought this, handle kit. and hooked it up,

http://www.ebay.com/itm/EZGO-36v-Cha...item27bc14de9f

It was still loose, but it made contact, the next day i get a call "handle was melted". I take a look,the Negative connector on the handle got very hot and melted the plastic. It also melted the plastic on the cart-side portion of the connector.
So i then order this kit.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/EZGO-SB50-DC...item3cc3de689b

The cart is now almost dead, very slow.(The GF is not happy about having to carry water to the fields for the horses) The Batt pack is reading 36.5V
Installed the kit today.
Both the charger and cart sides of the plug... Turned it on, started charging. I took a reading while charging, was getting 40V. from the battery pack. walked away to get the GF to show her my handy work.(less then 5 minutes) checked the plug, it was very hot. Pulled it out.. and the plugs where melting. Again.

Help?

I"m pretty sure its hooked up right. I wired it the same way it was wired, when it worked fine. From the Charger White wire is positive, Black is negative.
The Cart side came with wires already installed and just had to hook them to the battery's.

Any Ideas?

[pggroves]

Can the radsocks be improperly oriented?

[bigoiboy]

Here's a pic of the 1st handle that melted.

The second one looks similar, except it the melt point looks like it was in the opposite contact.

The "Radsock is the little metal "male" pin that the wire gets crimp'd too.
I'm not shore it can be "oriented wrong" it just get pushed thru and clicks in place.

Would i be better served by wiring in a 220V plug and socket type thing?

[scottyb]

Bottom line is it's likely you have a loose connection. Since the plug end was new (cheap but new) I suspect the receptacle is worn, as happens over time. So yes a simple dryer pul with the 3rd member removed will work great, usually available at HomeD or hardware stores. I have used them myself, in fact I have one on the back of my service truck where I plug the trailer winch in when needed.

[bigoiboy]

Thanks for the reply guys.
I agree the handle is cheap.
for the second go around i put in a new recptical connection too.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/EZGO-SB50-DC...tem3cc3de689b=

The Cart recptical part came with the Radsock prewired in the plug part.

I only crimpled down the handel plug side. I'm thinking this might be the problem.

I just picked up the 30 amp dryer plug and receptical set, going to give that a shot.

Is 40V about what i shoud see on the battery side when the charger is pluged into it?

Again, Thanks for the help. The info on this forum helped me build this cart from a frankenstien shell, into a daily workhorse that has been flawless for over a year now.

Not pretty, but it gets the water where it needs to go everyday.

[rib33024]

That's not an EZGO, if you didn't crimp it real good that has to be the problem, the charger need to see around 46 volts before it will turn off

[bigoiboy]

Originally Posted by rib33024

That's not an EZGO, if you didn't crimp it real good that has to be the problem, the charger need to see around 46 volts before it will turn off

Its, a Club car body. With all EZ-Go (80's marathon) electircs and motor/rear axl. (Took me a week after i bought it to figure all that out.)

Like i said, frankenstien Cart.
I got it like that.
I put in new 4 guage wiring, New coil and FNR switch.
It's Been great for the last year.

[bigoiboy]

Thanks for the Help guys. I installed a 30amp NEMA 10 type dryer plug and socket on the side of the car. Great solid connection now. The only thing thats even remotly warm now is the Charger itself, but that's been since i got it.

I should have done this a year ago. Much better conenction then the stock handle connector, and cheaper !

[scottyb]

Good to hear, now get her to move the water trough closer to a hose bib, and take that 50x7= 350 pound live weight load out of the back of the cart!

[simple man]

Make sure you turn off your key switch when parked. This will prevent those nosy critters from driving off when they hit the accelerator pedal!