'94 club car ds gas jerks into forward or reverse

[stevenj_orlando]

I have tries searching the site for this problem but could not find a thread relating to gas carts.
I have a club car ds gas that does not smoothly transition from stopped to moving, either forward or reverse. Watching the clutches and belt in maintenance mode, it seems that by the time the drive clutch is starting to close around the belt the engine rpms are high enough that the cart lurches forward (or reverse) and then everything seems to work fine from that point. If i feather the gas pedal a few times to allow the drive clutch to engage the belt at a lower rpm I get a much smoother transition. There is about an 1/8" of clearance between the side of the belt and the drive clutch face when everything is at rest. The belt seems to be ok and measures at .992 inches wide so I don't believe it is that worn. The clutch faces are smooth and clean. The driven clutch slides are not the smoothest, I was going to clean these first.
Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks.

[riordan.andrew]

Follow, similar experience with JD Gator...

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[Fairtax4me]

First thing that comes to mind is your drive clutch is sticking. That usually causes the rough initial engagement. Ideally the drive clutch should start to close almost as soon as the motor starts turning. Most of the time a rebuild of the drive clutch will fix that.

I have had two that wouldn't engage smoothly even after a rebuild. I figured it was because the new buttons were sticking in the slides. After having them apart several times to make adjustments I eventually sanded enough material down on the slides for the buttons that it mostly fixed the problem. The slides were very grooved and scored and all I did was smooth them back out a little at a time with emery cloth.

The second thing to check is to make sure your driven clutch is closing all the way. Look in the center and make sure the sheaves are touching. If there's a gap between them the clutch isn't closing all the way and its causing the belt to ride lower than it should in the sheaves. That makes the belt loose and will cause a shudder when the drive clutch engages because it makes the belt skip on the drive clutch.