Old guy new to forum with new (to me) TXT

[scottyb]

Sounds like you have a good understanding of how the system is suppose to be working... The 1st stage of charging for the typical wet cell is full transformer capacity (10% of the Battery Ah capacity) Next stage is about 50% capacity and final stage about 3-5 amps for a long equalizing charge. Battery Pack should reach 44-46v to hit the cut off voltage for the charger.

[JohnnieB]

Rats!!! I've got a bad charger. 37.6v before and after 12+ hours on charger

PowerWise II - 2006 date code.
Relay clicks insider charger when cable plugged into cart and transformer hums.
Ammeter never moved off Zero, so I suspected it might have some issues, but let it run overnight anyway, just in case it was just a funky ammeter.
Couldn't find a schematic for a PowerWise II, I did find one for a PowerWise and if the output circuit is similar, the ammeter is in series with the + line, so no amp reading, means no current flow through battery being charged.
Probably a bad diode or two rather than the fuse since the transformer was humming like it had a load on it.

Before popping the case on the charger, I'm going to have a little chit-chat with the seller. Maybe he has another charger or will give me some cash back.
An on-board charger is on my wish list, so it might happen sooner than later.

On the other hand, I did manage to reduce the resistance in the battery cables/connectors by half with a baking soda solution, a stainless steel toothbrush and some bamboo skewers, but some of the crimp-on connectors have some corrosion embedded in the wire, so it's new cable time also. Having spent 50+ years working on electronic and electro-mechanical devices, I've seen a lot of crimp-on connectors fail, so I prefer soldered-on.

[scottyb]

That is why I make all my custom cable sets with a silver soldered connection. The highly acidic environment is why I use thick shrink wrap with an adhesive lining.

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by shadowman

..............by all means get your wife involved.............makes getting into the bank account much more easy.........................

Funny you should mention that. SWMBO was sitting in the glider on the back porch while I was at the bottom of the steps cleaning battery cables and we discussed whether or not to go ahead and do the upgrades to cart immediately as well as fix what's broke, before what little money we managed to save before retiring becomes completely worthless.

We decided to do it all right away instead of waiting.

Now all I've got to do is figure out what upgrades/additions to make and where to get the parts.
The end goal is a nice looking, safe, reliable and relatively stock cart. Our speed demon days are far behind us, or at least in open air vehicles. Both of our cars have chips without speed limiters.

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by scottyb

That is why I make all my custom cable sets with a silver soldered connection. The highly acidic environment is why I use thick shrink wrap with an adhesive lining.

Some forums get twitchy when business is discussed, so I sent you a PM.

[JohnnieB]

Added info about reducing resistance in battery cables.

I found the charger connector under the BL connector on both + and - terminals. Shouldn't that be the other way around?
In my opinion, the connector on the cable that carries the greatest current should be in the most intimate contact with the battery terminal with the connector for cables carrying lesser currents stacked on top of it.