92 36V Textron Marathon Series no go

[Andy4639]

OK,
you have pedal movement and it's a little high on the WOT part but it should move before shutting down. Does it climb gradullaly are is it a big jump between 0 to 5990? If it not a smooth rise then it's the pot box I think.
You will have 36 volts at the motor but are you sure the solenoid is kicking in? With the cart jacked up both back wheels off the ground place a jumper wire on the 2 large terminals of the solenoid, then press the pedal and see if it runs. If it does then the solenoid is bad.

[Fleck]

Ya what he said. Thanks Andy For handling the light work for me. You know I'm joking and thank you for letting me have a crack at it. Unless I have the problem child in front of me; I can only offer up so much

[Andy4639]

I'm just helping what I can. Sometimes it's not enough. I like to get my hands dirty.

[hmhsdad]

When checking pot box resistance it goes from 0 to 5990 ohms pretty quickly, but I am going from no throttle to WOT pretty quickly as well. Should I go 0 to 60 a little slower?

Secondly, when I check the hot side of the solenoid it shows battery pack voltage of 36 volts (I know it needs a charge). When I check the controller side of the solenoid it reads 25 volts. I thought it should only be 1-3 volts less than battery side. When I go WOT, I hear the solenoid pull in and the controller side immediately goes to battery pack voltage of 36 volts. This tells me that the solenoid is working at WOT.

I checked the motor tonight. There is continuity between A1 & A2 and also between S1 & S2. There is not continuity between any other combination of posts and I did not detect a lug grounded to the motor.

Thanks for the help....just trying to help a neighbor.

[qwerty77]

You see the blue wire right above those throttle wires? That's the controller enable, if at the moment it goes to B+ voltage the controller doesn't see something near 0 ohms, the controller will not start, this keeps people from "slamming" from reverse to forward. Like the other guy said, if it goes to high like 5.5K or higher that too will cause the controller to "kick out".
You can buy a replacement pot for about 20 bucks. Your not going to find one like it at radio shack. It's wire wound, with about a 20 degree dead band of 0 ohms.
To replace it you will need to remove the battery closest to it, disconnect the wireing, pay attention to the polarity of the two wires running to your F/R switch and the controller. (that's part of the voltage compensation/reverse slowdown feature) disconnect your throttle linkage, remove the three screws holding the box, theres a cable strap to the controller you will have to unmount, anyway, then take the throttle assembly inside, remove the 4 phillips screws and the throttle "arm" The rest is soldering, use rosin flux! It helps!!
Anyway once you got the new one in there you will want to "tweak it" using the slot at the end of the shaft so that as the thottle arm clicks the micro switch the resistance is right at 0 ohms and is starting to come up. Installed in the cart it should go smoothly from 0 ohms to about 5K

You also said you motor had 36v to it, but that shouldn't happen if that pot is bad.

[jauguston]

I am totally new to these things but let me tell you what I found on the '92 Marathon controller cart I recently bought in a "Won't run" condition. I ordered a repair manual from EZ-GO and started through the test procedure. Everything seemed to check out until I pulled the blue wire spade connector off of the controller and cleaned it with some contact cleaner with a Q-Tip like the book said to do. I reinserted the connector that I had previously tested as having power and away it went. That spade on the controller was corroded.

Jim -- Learning as I go.