A small lesson in troubleshooting...

[Dragracer_Art]

Expect the unexpected.

Sometimes what may appear to be a major problem... turns out to be quite simple in the end.

Last week I had a machine come in to my shop. The complaint was "It doesn't steer sometimes".
This is not a golf cart, but the same principles apply.

So... I drove it all over the plant without issue.
Checked a few known possible issues... and nothing found.
Couldn't find a problem with it so I put it back in service.
I've been turning wrenches for 37 years now... so if I've learned nothing else... I know the problem will eventually make itself clear if it's driven long enough.
Yesterday it finally stopped steering altogether... so I had to drag it back to my shop with a forklift and start poking around.

My first thought was a bad contactor... or hydraulic pump motor. (steering is hydraulic)

The contactor was actuating just fine... but power wasn't crossing the contacts.
No power in, no power out... so I started poking fuses with my meter.

All fuses tested fine... but when I poked the terminal blocks they were bolted to... one of them had no voltage on one side of the fuse. (fuse was good though)
I remove the fuse and find a broken solder joint on the fuse. Something I've never seen before.
Popped a new fuse in place and put the unit back in service.
Downtime was less than an hour.

Thought y'all would enjoy.

[yawood]

Good story.

[Lochlin]

I had a virtual identical thing happen to me last summer with a camp-neighbor's cart that he asked me to look at. Why do people say, "can you look at my cart for me" anyway? Do they not really mean "please fix my cart?"

All the same, I "look at" the dead cart and it is 100% dead. Nothing. After some time poking around I decide to start replacing the power-related cables. Sure enough, I replace a battery to battery cable and the cart comes the life. Here the replaced cable had completely corroded though underneath the shrink tubing so it wasn't visible to the naked eye.

[Fairtax4me]

Zip tie and itll be aight...

Quite often its the simple stuff that bites people in the rear. The KISS rule is one I always try to follow, though sometimes it's unavoidable and you're just gonna have to run around the block a time or two.
Good easy fix, thanks for sharing!

[NoleFan4Ever]

JB Weld!! Lol!

That was definitely a different story from the nor,....

[jakesnake27]

Gotta love the easy fixes, especially once you find them