Club Charger Troubleshooting

[StixNC]

I recently purchased a 96 club car with absolutely dead deka batteries. I put distilled water in them and hooked up the charger with the hope that it might kick on and maybe renew the batteries. So far nothing. I'm concerned that the charger could be bad. Is there a way to test the charger to see if it is actually working? Thanks for any help.

[OLD MEC]

Were the batterys really dry as if that is the case you may be just wasting your time? What is your pack voltage 6-6volt batterys "36 volt" ( 3 fill caps ) or 6- 8 volt batterys "48 volts" ( 4 fill caps ) so we know what pack voltage is in your 96 Club Car? Does your cart have a OBC that the ground cable runs through on last battery under drivers seat? If so you need to get battery pack up to at least 32-36 volts before OBC will allow charger to kick in.
This can be done by using auto 12 volt charger to bring ( one battery in 8 volts batterys ), ( 2 batterys in 6 volt ) but in the case of 8 volt batterys should be only run while monitoring it closely.as they get very warm.
To answer your question there is a way to test chargers but lets be sure it isnt bad batterys rather than charger problem first.

[StixNC]

Thanks for replying. It has 6-6volt batterys making it 36volt. Also the first 4 batterys appeared bone dry and the last 2 appeared a little moist but no standing water in them. Also the ground wire running from last battery goes straight to the motor in rear. There is also a white wire on the battery ground going to the component that the charger plug is plugged. I have a battery tender jr that has dual plugs but is is 12 volts so not sure if I shouild use it? Also I don't understand how it gets any ground. This carts body parts and frame is 100% aluminum including most of the steering components. Are all club cars aluminum? I have only had ezgo in the past.

[OLD MEC]

Looks like your charger can't even add amps to shorted batterys so its like pouring a cup of water into a well? The "BATTERY TENDER" could be used on 2 batterys at a time but they are normally so low amperage that it would be more bother than help?
I think that you might as well start shopping for new ( QUALITY BATTERYS )? Remember that the heavier a battery is the longer it will last and give you more power cycles ( MORE LEAD ).
Club Car is the only one that uses aluminum frame and so if cared for will not rot like a steel frame.
I dont know what EZGO you had before but remember ( ALL ELECTRIC CARTS HAVE FLOATING GROUND AND NOTHING ELECTRICAL IS TO BE GROUNDED TO FRAME ). Floating ground means that every electrical part must have ground wire running back to pack negative ground. Gas carts are grounded to frame or better yet to motor, frame and battery negative.
GOOD LUCK

[scottyb]

These batteries are dead.....dead DEAD dead. Did I say Dead? They are dead as can be. Not coming back from the dead,... dead...... In my opinion trying to resurrect them is a waste of your AC on the DC

[shadowman]

i think i would grab a wiring diagram seems the cart may be a little jerryrigged.......................

[rabbitreborn]

A 36 volt Lestronic charger requires a minimum of 24 volts in the battery pack to even turn on. I go through this every year when the "snowbirds" head south for the winter. The shop I work at gets at least 5 calls a day saying "help, my cart is dead and the charger won't work". the simplest solution is to find a neighbor that has a 36 volt car and using a set of jumper cables, "borrow" juice from the neighbor's car to power your up long enough to get your charger started.

Find the 36 volt positive and negative on your cart. The 36v positive SHOULD be the positive post on the front battery on the passenger side. The 36v negative SHOULD be the negative post on the front battery on the Driver side.

next, find the 36 volt positive and negative on the neighbors car. Depending on the model you may have to search a bit.

take a set of jumper cables and hook them to YOUR car first (red to 36v pos, black to 36v neg)
take the other end of the cables and hook them to the neighbors car (I reccommend doing the neg cable first)

Plug in the charger to your car and it should start working (sometimes they take a few seconds to actually start up so give it a few). If the charger doesn't start, recheck all your wires to make sure you have good connections. If it still doesn't start, your charger isn't working.

If the charger starts up, give it about 15 minutes and then disconnect the NEG jumper cable on the Neighbors car. Make sure the charger on yours is still running, if it stopped, reconnect the jumper cable (there will likely be a spark) and wait another 15 min. If the charger keeps running, preceed to disconnect the remaining jumper cable clamps and let the charger do it's job (likely this will take at least 10-12 hours).

Now, all of that being said, the fact that at least 4 of those batteries were bone dry, you will likely need to purchase new batteries in the very near future. A quality set of Interstate batteries for your golf car will run you around $600 and will last you about 6 years or more if you take care of them. Yes, I said Interstate batteries and not Trojan batteries.... the fact is, the new green and black Interstate Golf car battery has 6 pounds more lead than the comparible Trojan battery (the T-105) and it generally will cost about $20 per battery LESS than the Trojan.

Hope that helped you out.

[StixNC]

Thanks so much for all u guys help. I'm going try the jumping off the other cart. I feel though I may as well find some new batteries. I bought this cart from a local fire dept. and it hasn't been hooked up to the charger in over a year. They did say that it never had a problem charging when they did hook it up so I have no reason to believe that the charger is actually bad. Was hoping that the batteries could be saved but in reality I know that cant happen with that length of neglect.

Have any idea where the best place to buy batteries is? Any online places to order or big box stores to buy from? Thanks again for all the responses.

[rabbitreborn]

Personally I would check with your local Interstate battery dealer as they should be able to get them for you even if they don't usually stock them. However, if you choose another brand or type of battery, they are readily available at any golf car dealer and even at most boat dealers. Bear in mind, when it comes to Golf Car batteries you really do get what you pay for and cheaper is not always better (please, for your own sake, refrain from buying the batteries from WalMart or Sam's club as they are really not worth it)

Most places are not going to sell you these types of batteries online as they are nearly impossible to ship over any distance due to regulations regarding the shipping of Acid.

[shadowman]

rabbit, couldn,t agree more about getting batts from sams club or walmart.......if you can,t afford brand i would than try private label and if no good use the afore mantioned places as last resort..........now if you do go with one of those places and you want your batteries to last at least 4 years it is doing the new break in period for batts. right................new batts are approx 75 to 80 percent when you buy them so you have to break them in and get your 100% this is where 50% of elec. cart owners go wrong.......2nd after break in its MAINTENCE, MAINTENCE, AND MAINTENCE...............if you keep on top of them and do regular bi-monthly maintence you might get 4 to 6 heck maybe even 8 years out of them but 95% are good for 4 years or so..............................this is where the other 50% of owners go wrong, new batts broke in but than forgotten about cause once a year ain,t gonna cut it.........................i can,t tell you how many sets of batts. i have seen that were ruined befor 15 months of use.........it dosn,t matter what you tell them those should have lasted longer...........the one thing about the big T,s is even after some serious lack of maintence you got a 70% chance you might be able to save that sucker those others its a waste of time even trying.............................