Direct Short, Now What/

[damone]

Hello,

New here.

Uncle wants to give me his 87' EZ Go.

serial # 507-871 manufacturer # 88L24

He had to replace the F/R switch and when hooking it back up fried his battery wires.

He said he was confident he wired it back correctly, but who really knows?

The cart has no batteries in it right now.

Should I bother with it, or let him junk it?

I can follow the forums well and am willing to investigate, but figure I need batteries to even begin to figure it out.

Is there anything I can look at prior to taking possession that would tell me to stay away?

thoughts/advice/

Thanks,
D

[JohnnieB]

The serial# (Sans hyphen) comes back with the following:

Search Results

Make: Marathon

Type: Electric

Model: Electric 4-wheel Marathon

Year: 1988

I'm not sure if that is a resistor type drive or if it has an electronic speed controller, but in either case, if it is a rust bucket, it will take a lot of time, effort and money to restore.
If it has a solid frame and the body is in decent shape, it might be a worthwhile project.

There are quite a few people running Marathons floating around the forum, so post a few pictures of it and they'll probably chime in.

[scottyb]

A free 88 Ezgo is a GREAT first cart.

Grab a couple of diagrams and start cleaning her up. Make any repairs that are needed to the battery trays and check the high amperage cable routes before battery installation. Look for shorts where cables may have rubbed the frame or ?

[damone]

Is there any telltale signs in the resistors or controllers that they are fried? i dont know if I want to spend, what $250-300 bucks on 6 used batteries to find out the controller or resistors are shot.

BTW, Thanks for the replies.

[roady89]

Originally Posted by damone

Is there any telltale signs in the resistors or controllers that they are fried? i dont know if I want to spend, what $250-300 bucks on 6 used batteries to find out the controller or resistors are shot.

BTW, Thanks for the replies.

Yea....for a used set. New ones with cost $600+.

One thing I used to do was use 3 car batteries to see if the old cart would actually run before spending money. If its a resistor cart you can use just 1 batt to test with but most controllers need 24-36 volts to function.

[scottyb]

Put it up on jack stands to test, it won't be able to move it's weight with reduced voltage tests.

Expect to buy some parts ..... your Dad already shorted out something, right? May be you need a MS or ?
But you should expect to need to do some repair in addition to 'slapping batteries in and go'.

[JohnnieB]

Let's find out if it is a resistor cart or a controller cart and go from there.

Here is a resistor cart with the resistor box outlined in red.
(@ Kernal, hope you don't mind me using your picture.)

[Gonkulor]

here is a controller cart with the controller and associated parts outlined in red.

controller highlight.jpg

And the guts of a controller specific cart.

Controller parts.jpg

[damone]

I will bring the cart home next weekend regardless of resistor/controller, and give it a go.

Thanks for the replies and I will update in a week.

[damone]

I went to local cart repair shop and talked with the owner. he said that if it is a resistor cart that I should walk away as the prior short probably ruined the resistors or was caused by the resistors.

I found out yesterday that the cart was a resistor cart so i decided to put my money into a running used cart rather than one with problems. still cartless, but not for long.