1990 Marathon Speed Control went POOF!

[Jamesn71]

So my free find project is going to cost me some money.

1990 36v EZGO Marathon.

The previous owner stated it ran fine up to the day they left it in the yard 10 years ago.

After cleaning it up and removing surface rust from the trays I hastily hooked up fresh trojan batteries. It was in reverse when I hooked up the ground and that beep scared the crap out of me. I absolutely know I hooked the batteries up correctly.

I pressed the pedal and no movement and a small amount of smoke came out of the Speed controller. Quickly disconnected the ground. I'm sure I fried it but not sure how. Looking to have it rebuilt or not opposed to buying an Alltrax but before I do I wasn't to make sure I don't fry a new one as well.

I pondered if the motor was bad. Following the advice of a post I hooked the jumper and used a 12 volt battery to see if it would turn. I got a spark and a bit of heat and stopped immediately. So now I'm worried I fried the motor as well. I'm going to do some more research and try it again.

Here are my questions.
1. If the motor is bad can that fry a speed controller?

2. How can multimeter test components e.g. solenoid, speed switch, front reverse switch without the speed controller attached? (im apprehensive about sending power to it again)

3. What are the proper connections to retry that motor test. I have searched. different motors use different posts? I cannot really tell which style type I have.

4. I get a new Speed controller, solenoid, new heavy duty forward/reverse and set of cables. (estimated $1500) All installed properly is there reason the speed control switch (pedal) would fry another speed controller? I might as well spend another $$ and just do it but they seem hard to come by.

Thanks in advance. If these work I'll be in for about $2700 on a free cart that will get me to the pool and back.