How to tell the gauge of my wires

[BigWes]

Alright, so I found a spot that I was able to measure the diameter of the electrical wire without insulation. I got a measurement of a hare over .25". Based on the chart that Rib provided, it looks like I have 2 gauge cables.

Remac, so far I'm finding it fun to dig in, figure out what I have and try to see what I can do to it.

That leads me to this: as best I can tell, and what prior owner told me, pretty much everything except the batteries and cables are what came stock on 36 volt series cart in 1996. Since I'm wanting to get more power to the motor, I understand that I need to upgrade the controller and solenoid. All the combinations I've seen from what people have done and combination packages available show controllers with higher amps than the solenoid. Why is this? Do they have different jobs or send power to different end points? If the chain is only as strong as it's weakest link, why would they not have the same amp capacity?