96 EZO Battery/Charging question

[bpd35]

Hello, My daughter purchased us ( wife and I ) an EZGO golf cart last year. At any rate we brought it up to the campground all ready to use it and wammo... will not move.

We had a resident tech look at it and the best he can come up with is that it's the controller switch. Mind you this thing is a hunk and I really dont want to put a lot of money into it but I do believe it is a battery issue and not soo much a controller issue. Maybe I am wrong but here are the specs.

6 volt enegizer batteries. 2008

After the tech switched out a different switch ( 200 bucks ) it still behaves the same way. If it is still and you turn the key on it jumps forward without stepping on the gas. However, after that initial jump it will not move any further. According to him the batteries tested fine. So I start doing some research. I see where if the batteries are depleted then sometimes you have to get them up to a certain level before the charger will recognize them. So that is what I did. So I charge them in banks of 2 or 12 volts. I get a 12.4 off of every bank except 1 bank. When I hook up the 2 batteries and plug the charger in I get a spark ... huge spark... Now the charger is not charging it is just ON........ giving me a Volt and Amp reading and it arcs. I thought that was strange but I go forward anyways and turn on the charger and boy did she start zapping and sparking so I removed the connections and left it at that. In my opinion there is something wrong with the batteries and or connections...

And yes I did check and verify the pos and neg were hooked up correctly.

Thank you in advance

[JohnnieB]

It sounds like you have, or at least now have, more than one problem.

Let's start with the batteries. Since they are dated 2008, they are about 5 years old and that is a typical lifespan for standard batteries, but you may have economy batteries, which don't have as long of a useful life.

What is the Amp-Hour rating of the batteries? Standard is 225AH, Economy grades would be less.

Regardless of the AH rating, a 36V battery pack should read 38.2V when fully charged, each battery in the pack should read 6.37V and each battery should be within 0.1V of each other.

These voltage are take 12 hours after the charge is terminated.

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For a full charge, the On-Charge voltage should reach about 45V for a 36V pack, or about 7.5V for a 6V battery. (That would be 15.0V for a 12V battery or two 6V batteries in series)

The arcing and sparking is either due to reversed polarity, or a bad cell or cells.

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The cart moving a few feet and stopping is a classic symptom of the solenoid contacts not closing.

Do you hear the solenoid click when the key is turned on?
If so, the pedal switch may be bad or not adjusted correctly.

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To troubleshoot the cart further, we need to know which drive system it has.
If there is a Run/Tow switch, it is a DCS (sepex motor)
If not, it is a series drive (Series motor)

[bpd35]

Thank you for the quick response. There is no tow switch or at least one I could find.

I am not sure about the solenoid to be honest I do not know what even looks like. With the reverse polarity issue. Could that be from them mixing up the wiring ?

[JohnnieB]

Sounds like you have a series drive.

If it has a metal body it is a Medalist and if the body is plastic, it's a TXT.
So when asking questions, it should be described as either a "1996 Medelist Series" or a "1996 TXT Series".

The first attachment show the normal battery layout and connections.
The second attachment is a schematic for a series cart. Later model, so it may not match perfectly, but it is close.
The third attachment is a photo showing a solenoid and controller. The solenoid is the silver object. There controller is the black box behind the solenoid.
The controller shown is for a PDS cart, so yours with have a white plug on top instead of on front.

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The sparking could be cables getting mixed up, or a bad battery.

You don't have to remove the cables the charge two if the batteries with a 12V charger.
The fourth attachment show where to connect the 12V charger

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You can download the Owner, the service and the Parts manuals from this thread in the Stickies: http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/elect...g-manuals.html
They are the three PDF files near the top.
They are for a later model, but EZGO didn't reinvent the wheel ever year like the automakers did, so it most of the info applies.

[bpd35]

Again thank you for the prompt response. It is a metal body.

Knowing as little as I do I am learning.. one thing I failed to mention is that when you plug in the charger and turn on the key and step on the gas the golf cart will move forward.. so to me that sounds even more like a bad battery or some sort of switch.

[Sir Nuke]

Originally Posted by bpd35

Again thank you for the prompt response. It is a metal body.

Knowing as little as I do I am learning.. one thing I failed to mention is that when you plug in the charger and turn on the key and step on the gas the golf cart will move forward.. so to me that sounds even more like a bad battery or some sort of switch.

The reason why it will move when its plugged in, is someone in the past as bypassed the reed switch in the plug. Its something that if fairly common people do instead of putting new ones. What people do to make sure someone doesn't jump in the cart with it plugged in, is to run the cord through the steering wheel, so its obvious that the cart is plugged in.

[bpd35]

Originally Posted by bpd35

Again thank you for the prompt response. It is a metal body.

Knowing as little as I do I am learning.. one thing I failed to mention is that when you plug in the charger and turn on the key and step on the gas the golf cart will move forward.. so to me that sounds even more like a bad battery or some sort of switch.

Ok note taken regarding the reed switch. With that being said if the cart does not move ( lack of power ) or for whatever reason when the charger is not plugged in and on and yet it does move when the charger is plugged in does that not support the concept that there is a battery issue ?

[yurtle]

Try to run with charger plugged in to cart, but not plugged into the wall. If it runs, further proof that the reed switch is bad.

The usual failure mode of the reed switch is that it just won't run, but a reed switch is a small glass magnetic switch, potted in a plastic housing. Generally the broken glass will prevent the reed switch from closing, but I guess it's possible for it to fail in "reverse". The switch is activated by a magnet in the charger plug.