Battery question

[Newbie22]

My 86 ezgo resistor cart is really testing my patients. I think I may have a Battery problem cause I have no power going up a slight incline it goes somewhat alright on flat smooth ground. I have charged the batterys and each battery is reading around 6.3-6.5 volts but when I check them all together I get a voltage of 34-35v. Doesnt quite add up by taking the indivual batterys and adding them together I should get 37+ volts but im not.....
Any idea's? This thing is stressing me out..lol

more than likely you have a bad wire connection or a dead cell in one of the batteries
post each battery volts

[JohnnieB]

Sounds like you have some very bad cables or very corroded connections connecting the batteries together. If all six batteries are measuring from 6.3V to 6.5V, you should get 37.8V to 39.0V, but you are only getting 34V to 35V, so 3.8V to 4.0V are being lost by the poor connections between batteries.

Probably need a new set of high current cables. All or them since the ones connecting the batteries to the motor via the resistor network are most likely in about the same condition as the ones connecting the batteries together.

[Newbie22]

Originally Posted by crash test dummy

more than likely you have a bad wire connection or a dead cell in one of the batteries
post each battery volts

Each battery is at 6.3v-6.5v. I will try what JohnnieB says with the cables. I quickly checked them all to see that they were tight, and they were. Just weird cause when we parked it last year it ran fine...

Originally Posted by Newbie22

Each battery is at 6.3v-6.5v. I will try what JohnnieB says with the cables. I quickly checked them all to see that they were tight, and they were. Just weird cause when we parked it last year it ran fine...

was it maintained ? if not then batteries may be shot .. but as always johnnieb is right re-do cables ... wait i said it first

[Newbie22]

If I am going to re-do the cables, what Guage do you sugest? I think it may be a 1g cable that's on it now, hard to tell though as they are old and writing is worn off.....

stock is 6g .. 4g or 2g is what everyone uses to upgrade

http://www.cartsunlimited.net/Batter..._Upgrades.html

[Newbie22]

Awsome, I will try 2g, thanks

[radioman]

Just to gain some knowledge where the voltage loss is occurring you might try measuring for small voltage drops across each jumper by measuring between the actual two battery terminal where the individual jumpers are connected. If you get a suspicious voltage drop then measure between the individual battery terminal and the lug on the jumper. You might do this while charging the batteries to generate some current flow which would make finding voltage drops caused by bad connection between the jumper and battery post easier. Replacing jumpers is ok but you may still have a bad battery or two and it would save time replacing batteries and jumpers at the same time. The voltage measurements you made indicate the batteries may be ok.

[2003ezgoelectric468]

Everything mentioned is good to check however, when I had that problem it was one battery that had a bad cell. My cart man said that I needed to do a load test with a voltmeter.
Here's how I did it, put the front of the cart against something stationary that wont hurt the cart. Place a chock on both rear wheels. Find someone to help you or use alligator clips to attach a dc voltmeter to battery number one. Push slowly on the forward pedal and record the reading. Repeat for all batteries. Under a load, you will find at least one or maybe two batteries that drop really low when under a load. Replace the battery or batteries with a good used one. Never mix new with old batteries. Doing this will buy you some time but you will probably end up replacing all the batteries soon.
There's a good battery thread at the beginning of this forum. It says, please read before posting. Good luck