98 Club Car DS 48V, batteries won't charge

[club98]

(the history) I bought this cart a week ago from an older woman. We charged it at her house overnight and the charger (1997 PowerDrive) was on 5 the next day. We drove it for less than ten minutes and it was dead. I have it at home now and we charged it for about 6 hours which took it to 5. We drove it for a couple of hours off and on. Now I try to charge it and it starts at 14 goes for a half hour maybe and then goes to zero. All the cables were junk and it wouldn't work anymore so I replaced them with 4ga welding wire cables. I put in a gallon of water between the six batteries to get them up over the plates. The charger turns and goes to about 13 and then starts down towards 10. After five minutes it drops to zero. The battery light goes on for about five seconds, then off for about the same, then on for about 30 seconds. It did this about twice and then the charger came back on. It was on for 5 minutes and dropped to zero again and started the light show again. It has not come back on to charge again. The whole battery pack is at 50 volts. I'm kind of figuring someone is going to say replace the batteries but I hope it's something cheaper. I don't know much about electrical systems but I do have a meter to check voltage. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've got a seven year son who is dying to drive this thing and doesn't understand (or care) why it isn't working.

[kneddor]

Start by checking and posting the voltage for each battery but it sounds like the batteries are toast.

[club98]

Thanks for the reply. I still have hope that they are not shot. Aren't new batteries at least $500?

The batteries voltage are all about 9.0 to 9.3 now with 56.2 total charge. I have been messing with it all day. When the light comes on I've been pulling the charger plug and moving the cart a little and then putting it back on charge. Sometimes the charger stays on for a little bit. This last time it seems to be staying on. It shows the charge at about 8.

[bioniccartsandcustoms]

Batteries do sound like they are shot.....But it also sounds like they are damaged because the On Board Computer is going bad. For the charger to be kicking on and off, it has to be signaled from the OBC. When OBC is failing, the signal gets messed up...if it works at all. What you said about the charger just sitting a 5amps is a sign that the OBC is bad. It sounds like poor battery maintenance, may have been the start of your problems. It stresses the batteries, charger and OBC. I could be wrong but I have seen it before....alot.