Troubleshooting EZGO Powerwise Charger

[RLTexas]

I recently acquired a 2004 EZGO Series cart and Powerwise charger (early model with analog meter). The cart was probably idle for a year or so. I have already learned a lot from this forum and appreciate everyone's assistance. I used a multimeter to check the 50amp fuse and both diodes which all checked out. Next I took a screwdriver and bypasssed the relay and the charger came on. I also took apart the charger plug, cleaned and sanded the radsoks and replaced the small clip. All other connections look ok. I took the charger to my local golf cart store - they did a bench test and said it was not working. Maybe the relay is bad? Until I get new batteries, are there any other tests I can perform on the charger? Note: the batteries in the cart are bad - added distilled water, tried to charge up pairs with 12v charger but no luck. Thanks!

[JohnnieB]

Welcome to BGW!

You've done about all you can do to check it since it has to sense a minimum battery voltage of about 30V to turn on automatically.

On the brighter side, it does come on when you bypass the relay, so you can charge your new batteries with it when you get them.

The new batteries will need to be charged before first use and the first charge usually takes a very long time (12 hours or more in some cases).
The nice thing about the older design was all the charging stuff (charge current profile) was built into the matched transformer/capacitor pair and it is next to impossible to over charge batteries with it.

Just monitor the On-Charge voltage and stop charging when it reaches 45V. (Yes, 45v for a 36V battery pack)