2009 Club Car Precedent troubleshooting

[JPRITCH]

A friend of mine has a 2009 Club car precedent with a remanufactured controller, although not upgraded, and OLD batteries (4-12 volt batteries). Not sure the year of batteries to be honest. They won't hold much of a charge. The guy he bought it from didn't know either and they do not have stickers.

Anyhow, on to the issue. I was driving it up a steep grade after I charged the batteries up just to see if this thing would run. It had been sitting up a while. It just completely died almost to the point of like a really aggressive regen type stop and I smelt electrical smoke smell. Not good! Anyhow, I could not really determine where the smell came from but I ran across a suspicious looking Inline resistor (image attached) IMG_3246.jpg. After the smoke incident, the cart only has a JOLT of power intermittently when you keep the pedal down but will not drive. It does this in both forward and reverse. About every 5 seconds with the accelerator down, you get a pulse of power to rear wheels. So, I decided to start with replacing the resistor because I knew it would be cheap. Grabbed it locally because again, though it would be a quick fix. Cart exhibited same behavior. I then decided to ohm out the solenoid to see if that was the issue. I ohm out the solenoid after applying power and I get an interment ohm reading of connectivity. Ok, so now I am thinking Solenoid (you are probably laughing at all the possibilities). I replaced solenoid (with a 400 amp one in case we upgraded controller later). NOTHING, same thing surge of very brief power every few seconds.

With this, I'm tired of part guessing and wanted to talk to an expert. Does this sound like Batteries, Controller or Motor to you? Across my battery pack I get about 48 volts and it surged down to 46 when I depress the pedal. Solenoid small wires receive 46-48 volts and the big wires ohm out properly when pedal is depressed. Any help would be greatly appreciated! The moron that had it before him painted the motor, no idea why.... and I can't find which terminals are which for any further testing. IMG_3255.jpg


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[JPRITCH]

Originally Posted by JPRITCH

A friend of mine has a 2009 Club car precedent with a remanufactured controller, although not upgraded, and OLD batteries (4-12 volt batteries). Not sure the year of batteries to be honest. They won't hold much of a charge. The guy he bought it from didn't know either and they do not have stickers.

Anyhow, on to the issue. I was driving it up a steep grade after I charged the batteries up just to see if this thing would run. It had been sitting up a while. It just completely died almost to the point of like a really aggressive regen type stop and I smelt electrical smoke smell. Not good! Anyhow, I could not really determine where the smell came from but I ran across a suspicious looking Inline resistor (image attached) Attachment 158079. After the smoke incident, the cart only has a JOLT of power intermittently when you keep the pedal down but will not drive. It does this in both forward and reverse. About every 5 seconds with the accelerator down, you get a pulse of power to rear wheels. So, I decided to start with replacing the resistor because I knew it would be cheap. Grabbed it locally because again, though it would be a quick fix. Cart exhibited same behavior. I then decided to ohm out the solenoid to see if that was the issue. I ohm out the solenoid after applying power and I get an interment ohm reading of connectivity. Ok, so now I am thinking Solenoid (you are probably laughing at all the possibilities). I replaced solenoid (with a 400 amp one in case we upgraded controller later). NOTHING, same thing surge of very brief power every few seconds.

With this, I'm tired of part guessing and wanted to talk to an expert. Does this sound like Batteries, Controller or Motor to you? Across my battery pack I get about 48 volts and it surged down to 46 when I depress the pedal. Solenoid small wires receive 46-48 volts and the big wires ohm out properly when pedal is depressed. Any help would be greatly appreciated! The moron that had it before him painted the motor, no idea why.... and I can't find which terminals are which for any further testing. Attachment 158078


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I'm essentially just trying to see if he needs a new controller/motor or something more simple like a forward reverse switch or pedal switch.


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[Golf cart guy]

Whats up with the red motor? Id start there, due to the fact that the cart kinda wants to move. Strange also that somewhat of a new cart has a red painted motor in it. Its a simple check so I would start there.

[JPRITCH]

Originally Posted by Golf cart guy

Whats up with the red motor? Id start there, due to the fact that the cart kinda wants to move. Strange also that somewhat of a new cart has a red painted motor in it. Its a simple check so I would start there.

I'm fairly certain it is a stock motor. Can anyone help label the terminals for me since mine are all covered up. I don't know A1 from F1, but I'm sure someone out there with a club cart can tel me. That photo I took is looking at it from the access panel on the back. Once I determine which terminals are which, I'll test out the voltages and report back my findings. YES, very weird someone would destroy a cart like this. It's almost like whenever owned it first gave a 7 year old a paint can and save have at it. The whole thing was painted in gold metallic spray paint and bright red spray paint. Absolutely awful.


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[JPRITCH]

IMG_3255.jpg is this the proper way to jump out a club car precedent? I drew up what I did above. Threw some voltage it after throwing some 4 gauge wire between the posts. NOTHING. I can't tell if those were the proper posts thought because of all the stupid overspray on this thing.


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[scottyb]

Green wire goes to A2, smaller blue wire next to it is F2

[JPRITCH]

Thanks, Scotty. Ok I jumped it out correctly then. Something is wrong with my motor. A local shop said they would take it out, clean it out and bench test it for $50. I told them to HAVE AT IT.


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[Gregorio]

OLD batteries? Sounds like the core of your problem right there. BTW, 4-12v was up to mid 2008, I believe. Regardless, low voltage from weak batteries make the amps go through the roof and that has a tendency to release the smoke from various parts. Cables and terminals are usually the first to go.

What is the pack voltage 12hrs after a charge? What is it under load?

[JPRITCH]

Originally Posted by Gregorio

OLD batteries? Sounds like the core of your problem right there. BTW, 4-12v was up to mid 2008, I believe. Regardless, low voltage from weak batteries make the amps go through the roof and that has a tendency to release the smoke from various parts. Cables and terminals are usually the first to go.



What is the pack voltage 12hrs after a charge? What is it under load?

Good point! With charging the disconnected batteries individually on a trickle charge I can barely get them to 13 volts each and they will never "fully charge" according to my stupid automatic battery charger. With the 48 volt cart charger, I can barely get the pack up to 50 volts. Which points to again, a weak pack. I told the guy that's checking out the motor and bench testing it properly to check out the batteries for me and report back. They are obviously going to test bad, but I like to hear what they have to say. I'll have him bench test the motor, drop in new batteries then go from there. At least that will be a good starting point. It's almost impossible to troubleshoot properly with crap batteries. I can't event hardly test your "under load" point because it won't really do anything at this point. I think the weak pack fried the resistor that I replaced. But who knows what else. Hopefully not some internals in the controller.


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[Sergio]

Just a note, low voltage caused by weak batteries does not cause "high amperage", after all if the batteries could deliver high amperage the voltage would not sag.

The low voltage/high current scenario only happens with healthy batteries when the pack is improperly connected to the cart.