2001 Ezgo series solenoid

[kgsc]

That would be a yes.. Check each battery and see if 1 or 2 are lower than the others. You may just have a couple that are bad. Look for a letter and a number on the - battery posts. Letter is the month and number is the year

[yurtle]

Originally Posted by JohnnieB

The purpose for the pre-charge resistor is to keep the two dozen or so filter capacitors inside the controller charged.

If the controller sits for a few minutes without B+ applied to its B+ terminal, the filter capacitors will discharge completely and when solenoid contacts close, the capacitors will try to draw an infinite number of amps. The is impossible because there is a few Milli-ohms of resistance in the high current cables and within the batteries, but for the first TC, the caps will draw all the amps the battery pack can produce and the cables will deliver.

Electromechanical contacts typically bounce a few times before they stay closed, so arcing occurs and if occurs often enough and intense enough, the contact will weld themselves together. Also, arcing causes pitting and pitting cause excessive resistance, so the contacts will eventually overheat and fail.

I don't believe the solenoid damage seen in the attached picture was caused by not using a pre-charge resistor, but the damage that will eventually happen will very likely be similar.

I have no idea how long a solenoid will function properly without a pre-charge resistor installed, but I'm pretty sure it will last longer with it than without it.

NOTE: Some of the latest generations of controllers (IE: Alltrax XCT and Curtis 1264) get the voltage to keep there filter capacitors charge somewhere other than their B+ terminal and do not use a pre-charge resistor.

I feel honored that one of my autopsy photos was used. It did have a "tested good" pre-charge resistor.

[cgtech]

Uh, yeah. If your voltage drops below 30v while accelerating (for longer than a split-second), you have problems with batteries. Anything in the "20s" is bad. These numbers are for "max load", not "at rest". Your numbers indicate junk batteries.