Battery Drain

[datwell]

2000 gas powered club car, battery died! With ignition switch off, zero volts; with switch on but not running, 3 volts. Is this normal? Reading voltage between the positive terminal of the battery and the disconnected main positive/red cable. Thanks

[mrlmd]

Read battery voltage between the pos and neg battery terminals, not how you are doing it. To read battery voltage there is no reason to disconnect battery cables.
What you are actually doing is reading current draw, or amps, not volts, and if you are not hooked up right with the meter on the correct settings, you will burn up your meter.

[datwell]

I agree, what I am trying to determine is what made the battery die. When I set the meter to amps, it shows zero. So that is good, out of curiosity I set the meter to volts DC and it showed 3.1; hence my question. I don't think there is a drain when the switch is on, but wanted to confirm.

[mrlmd]

I have no idea what you are reading, there is no way to read volts like that, you are not using the meter correctly and are getting erroneous readings.
Reconnect the positive battery cable, disconnect the negative cable, connect the meter in series between the negative battery terminal and the cable, set it on the 10 amp scale, and see if there is any current draw. If there is no current draw at rest, nothing is draining your battery. Charge up your battery fully on a charger and get it load tested to see if it's any good. Any gas station or battery place will do that for free (because they want to sell you another one). Or charge it up, measure the voltage across the battery terminals and keep measuring the voltage as you try and start the cart to see how low it goes (your own load test). Most likely you have a dead battery. Or, one last test, charge up the battery and with your voltage meter, starting at the pos end, read the voltage of each cell down the line by inserting the probe into the cell, into the acid, and go from one cell to the next, down the line. A fully charged battery should read 12.6-12.8 V, measured 1/2 hr. or so after being taken off the charger to eliminate "surface charge", and each individual cell should have a voltage of 2.1V. Your battery may be bad, and if you keep doing what you are doing with your meter, you are going to burn it out of you use it wrong.
Don't overlook the obvious - check the fluid level in each individual cell and top off if necessary (with water, not acid, and distilled water is best), and make sure the battery terminals are clean and tight so current can flow without excessive resistance. If you do get it started (you can jump it from a non-running car battery), again measure the voltage across the battery terminals to see if the charging system is working (should read 13.5-14.5V while engine is running).

[datwell]

Will do, thanks for the help

[Soul Searcher]

Greetings datwell,

How old is the Battery? Is the electrolyte, at the proper level? Before Troubleshooting an Electrical System Complaint. Make sure that the battery is Charged and maintain a voltage of 12.6 Volts, or greater, after sitting for a period of at least 12 hours.

Checking an open positive battery cable circuit with a meter set to DC Volts. You would need a schematic and the Specs of the Meter to figure out the Voltage drop of the open battery cable circuit.

[datwell]

Sealed battery, charged for 1.5 hours, load tested good. Using the method from above, detected no drain. Thanks for the help.

[mrlmd]

What was your original problem? Why do you say the battery died? Does the starter engage and the engine turns over? Can you start the cart?
Your battery may not even be the problem - it could be in the ignition switch, in one of the 4 microswitches involved in starting and turning off the motor, or somewhere else. Try and tell us what is actually going on instead of "battery drain" and "battery died".

[datwell]

Sorry, but the battery was dead. Nothing would work, after charging the battery everything was good. Cart had not moved in about 10 days and I thought there may be a problem with something draining the battery when not in use. It is working now and with the information you have given me, I will monitor and see if there is a problem. Thanks again

[csport]

Mine did the same thing, We searched and searched and never found the drain

At the suggestion of someone on the board, I got a battery disconnect from harbor freight and now it is PERFECT (except I am still adjust shift cable to I got a good reverse)

I think it was about $10 and we haven't had to charge or jump it since