Ezgo western battery wiring

[isriam]

I have a 97 western 42v and replaced the batteries today. I just realized the last battery in the string is connected to another battery on the negative to negative. Is that normal? Every other battery is pos to neg. The switch is hooked to the same negative as the last two. It's really hard to explain but if you look at the elegante wiring diagram the top left two batteries are connected on negative. I'm on my cell but can post pics in a bit.

[isriam]

ok so wired as it was when i got the cart, it was putting out 38v. i moved the negative to the positive per the wiring diagram, and now get 44v. most cells are around 5.2-5.7v so i think it needs a good charge. my next issue is my charger isn't jumping up to 25amp, its at 4amp. i was wiggling the wires around and it went from full charge to 4amp so i wonder if something is loose in the charger connector. any opinions on that?

[isriam]

i'm still here. i bought this cart on thursday and it would run for about 15 minutes then slowly die. i bought new batteries today and hooked them up exactly like the previous set and now i think that was all jacked up.

i have gone + to - across all 7 batteries and it reads 42v on the last + and the last -. When i hook my charger up, it kicks on and sits about 2amp. The batteries read 42.1-43.1v with the charger going. do i need to let this sit overnight? the charger should be connected to + and - from the input right? It looks like originally it was going to + and +, and it would charge normally somehow.

[isriam]

ok so i'm getting about 30ohm from the receptacle to the end of the lead for the charger. i think the cables might be bad causing the charger to only do 2amps. are the cables hard to replace on the receptacle?

[scottyb]

You are right all the batteries in a series connect + to -.
It sounds like the charger is not working.... the initial bulk charge should be 15-20 amps.

[isriam]

Originally Posted by scottyb

You are right all the batteries in a series connect + to -.
It sounds like the charger is not working.... the initial bulk charge should be 15-20 amps.

thanks scotty. this has been a hell of a weekend.

originally cart ran fine, but died after about 20 minutes of riding. lester ii charger would hit 30amps, and drop down to 5-10 after 30 minutes, then kick off. took pictures of wiring, and bought new batteries today.

today i installed batteries, connected cables per my diagram and photos, and hooked up charger. it hit 30 amps, so i preceeded to put the seat and cover back on the solenoid area. i heard the charger sound as if it kicked off, and i went and looked and it was at 4amps.

i could not get the charger to work again, so i reviewed my cabling and realized it was all wrong. voltage was 38v across 7 cells, so i knew it was wrong. followed the factory diagram and got 42.5v across all 7 cells. this is when i realized the charger receptacle + and - were both wired to + on the first and last battery. i moved it to the - on the last battery.

now the lester ii powers on and hits 2 amps and does nothing. the cables from the receptacle seem to be corroded and swollen and i'm thinking moving them around today broke connectivity from the charger to the batteries.

again, the charger worked the past 3 days and quit working after i moved the wires around on the batteries. they are not in good shape, swollen and cracked with corrosion falling out if i bend them.

[Raystar57]

Originally Posted by isriam

i could not get the charger to work again, so i reviewed my cabling and realized it was all wrong. voltage was 38v across 7 cells, so i knew it was wrong. followed the factory diagram and got 42.5v across all 7 cells. this is when i realized the charger receptacle + and - were both wired to + on the first and last battery. i moved it to the - on the last battery.

now the lester ii powers on and hits 2 amps and does nothing. the cables from the receptacle seem to be corroded and swollen and i'm thinking moving them around today broke connectivity from the charger to the batteries.

again, the charger worked the past 3 days and quit working after i moved the wires around on the batteries. they are not in good shape, swollen and cracked with corrosion falling out if i bend them.

First fix those corroded cables and connections.

Second, maybe the sense wire has broken or has fried the charger cable due to incorrect battery connections.
Just a thought.

Do you get higher than 42V at the charger port when charging?

[isriam]

its all fixed up now.

put all batteries in series, got like 42-43 volts from them, charged and read 50 volts while charging. took about 8 hours and its good to go. also i had to replace the receptacle and wires from it because they were corroded and broken. been a long week.