Coil Grounding on 88 EZGO

[BrewCityMusic]

After chasing electrical troubles for awhile with my 88 (still without a solution) I have a few simple questions to settle before I continue troubleshooting on my day off (Tues):

1: I had to make a new bracket for my electronic coil, and I was wondering if it needs to be grounded (if i test the coil "+" wire to the coil "-" wire I get nothing while cranking it, however if I test the coil wire "+" to a ground I get almost 12v *sometimes*)

2: I'm confused with the operation of the "neutral" switch - my cart turns over fine in both directions and neutral, does this switch affect the ignition current at all? (Like it might be engaging the starter but not allowing current to the ignition circuit)

Is there anyone in the Lake Geneva, WI area that's good with these carts? The closest EZGO dealer to me is in Cary, IL (about 40 min away) but if I don't solve the problem this week I'm going to have to run it down there (I need the cart running by the 18th for a family party)

Thanks in advance!

[tenn_blue59]

Not sure about your specific questions, but grounding for the coil and selenoid is critical. We had selenoid issues on my cart when we first got it (several threads about it on here) but got it going. Couple days later, it was running crappy - smoking, stalling, low speed etc - after having run like a champ the day before.
Found the negative (ground) terminal on the selenoid was loose, The blade connector in the wire harness was easy to pull apart. I took some pliers and tightened the contact up and it ran much better - guess the intermittant ground was making the engine cut out/run/cut out but it was. Amazing what a difference a loose wire makes.

Working with outboard boat motors, a lot of bad and intermittant problems can be attributed to poor ground points.....
Good luck!

[BrewCityMusic]

That's what I thought RE the solenoid, but the new one I got from another site (not a sponsor here) came with specific instructions NOT to ground the case (even had fully plastic-encased mounting tabs to isolate the mounting bolts, etc) ... As to all the connections, literally EVERY wire on the front end is new ( I had a ton of corrosion troubles with connectors, etc so I replaced all of them AND the wires)

I asked because the OLD solenoid was grounded to the mount - I'll give it a shot, what's the worst that could happen?

(BTW, as to the new wiring, I own a sound production company, so soldering is in my blood - all the new wires are crimped, soldered, and shrunk and tested prior to hooking them up, so I can safely eliminate at least THAT part of the equasion)

[racerecks]

""I'll give it a shot, what's the worst that could happen?""


While I haven't researched the specific wiring for your solenoid, it seems that since the mfr made specific efforts to prevent grounding (instructions saying not to, insulated (plastic encased) mounting tabs, i'd say the worst that could happen is burn up the solenoid or other electrical components in the cart. If they hadn't said anything, even the plastic covering on the mounting tabs would make me second guess grounding the case.

btw, thanks for the help with the HEI conversion - got it all wired up and functional today. However, since it didn't correct my performance issues, i returned to the original ignition while i refine the new coil mounting. Guess I'll have to start another thread on my performance problems.

[BrewCityMusic]

I agree - the worst case scenario doesn't look good, but at this point, I gotta try SOMETHING, the cart turns over fine with the new solenoid, but now it doesn't send any voltage to the coil if I put the DMM across the coil wires (but it WILL send 12v to the "+" coil wire if I ground the negative lead of the DMM) - frustrating as hell, especially considering ALL the components across the board are new (except the pulsar, which ohms out as good) ...

[racerecks]

I kinda figured it was a last ditch effort, and you'd would probably need to do it to try out every option. Maybe if you ground it through a fuse - I doubt the fuse would interfere with the operation and if somehow it created a dead short, the fuse would (hopefully) pop before any other components.

[BrewCityMusic]

GREAT call - I like the fuse plan, gonna use it Tuesday (which is unofficial "Cart Day")

[BrewCityMusic]

WELL - I'm about ready to load her up and take it to the dealer (45min away - UGH) ... Here's what I AM getting, test-wise:

pulsar 144 ohms

coil + to frame ground gives me 12v while turning it over, coil + to coil - gives me zero

HEI module is grounded and I am getting 12v to the "b" tab and ground when turning it over, I'm just not getting the coil "-" wire ("c" on the HEI) to complete a circuit, and the HEI module tests good

also, NOW I can't get the flywheel to come off, been soaking it w PB Blaster for almost a week, bent 2 pullers now trying

AAAAARGH

[philofab]

The flywheel is not on much of a taper. I've always gotten it off by tapping around the face of it with a small hammer with just a little tension from a puller. Should come right off.

[BrewCityMusic]

That's what I tried, this thing is REALLY on there - I'm wondering if the guy who did the rebuild used the wrong woodruff key and bound it up good, I just tried pulling it again and actually snapped one of the bolts (thank god above the threads so I could still get it out)