36v Club Car Charger Problem

[vinart]

Installed new batteries yesterday. Car ran great until batteries went dead. Plugged in charger and it pegged to 20 plus amps them blew the breaker. Tried everything including checking and double checking wiring. Is it the charger?

[roady89]

You may have the polarity of the charging wires reversed. On the charger cord White is positive 36 volt and black is negative 36 volts unless someone has changed it. Follow the wires from the charging plug to the batteries and make sure they are connected properly. Make sure all your other connection are right too.

[vinart]

thanks for the quick response. All seems correct. Could the cable running from the motor to the pos on the battery be bad?

[roady89]

If there is a short in the system then yes....it would make the charger flip out and throw a breaker. Did the needle on the meter start jumping and the charger start kicking on and off before it threw a breaker?

I doubt there is anything wrong with your charger. The only thing you have done is replace the batteries correct?

[vinart]

It kicked over to extreme righ (pegged) and stayed there for 2 min then kicked breaker. All I did was change the batteries. Followed wiring exactly as the old ones were. It ran great until the batts began dying. Stumped.

[shadowman]

i would double check the wiring on batteries, beleive it or not its very easy to put a cable on wrong .................it happens all the time....................

[vinart]

Thanks. I am new to this. Would it run if one cable was reversed? Also, Pos to negative until you get to the last battery, correct??

[roady89]

Originally Posted by vinart

Would it run if one cable was reversed?

When you say "reversed" you don't mean just turning the cable around....that wont matter.

Very possible if you have a cable wrong. It depends on what cable though. For example it will run in forward but if you put it in reverse it will throw fire from the F/R switch.

Originally Posted by vinart

Also, Pos to negative until you get to the last battery, correct??

Yes, Positive-negative, positive-negative,.....you should end up with a free negative terminal on one end of the pack and a free positive terminal on the other end of the pack. Make sure you didn't accidently run a battery in parrallel with another. It will still run but may have charging side effects.

[vinart]

the free negative and the free positve on each end of the pack need to connect to.....? Sorry, I am learning on the fly.

[roady89]

Originally Posted by vinart

the free negative and the free positve on each end of the pack need to connect to.....? Sorry, I am learning on the fly.

Depends on what year and model cart you have. Is it a resistor cart or controller cart? Serial and model numbers will help.