Here's My G8 Project

[Prowlerguy1]

Originally Posted by Mike Mac

Todd, are you aware that, ALL grounds have to return to the battery nagitive terminal? You cannot ground to the frame for anything!!

Now, I use the ground turminal on the starter instead (for a cleaner look)!!

Yes! That's the "star" grounding concept. All grounds in "most" electrical systems radiate out from one single point. This prevents "ground loops" which can cause circulating currents, and EMI in radios, computers, etc.

I do need to check and see if my motor is well grounded tho! You might be on to something there.

Thanks, Mike.

[sho305]

There is another post here about this but don't recall an answer. Check the shifter on the trans and the cables for moving/hitting something when shifted. Yes maybe it could ground through the shifter don't know. I removed the buzzer on my cart its always run fine though now is clone powered, the buzzer became really sick sounding and it is not really operated around many people.

The pickup aims at the rear of the flywheel, there is a lip, the lip has a window in one spot. Makes me think its a hall effect, I could not see a magnet at all. The lip is similar to the back of a truck brake drum without cooling fins. I think the pickup had 2 wires out of it, but its been a while since I looked at it and do not have the engine here.

It is common to have issues with the wires on the start solenoid (the small ones). Very common to have ground issues. IIRC the cradle is ground but the frame is not necessarily, for sure the motor mounts and gen mounts are not sure on the outer frame of the cradle. I put a ground cable on my frame because of the lights I ran had no ground wire just the mount stud.

[Prowlerguy1]

Well, I guess "LIFE" just happened to me for the past YEAR! I can't believe it was NOV 2015 that I last posted about my G8.

So, my cart has been covered and just sitting the driveway for the past year. I had several other projects that were higher priority and there just was never enough time on my days off to get back to it. BUT!!! Now I'm a whole year older and I'm getting tired of walking down to the shed to get this, or that, or whatever. So, it's time!!!!

Anyway, the last time I was working on the cart, it was mystifying me. I had determined that when the backup buzzer was sounding off, the spark plug would have a nice blue spark. When the backup buzzer was NOT sounding off, the spark plug would barely light up.

I thought I was going nuts. I still can't figure out the connection between the buzzer and the ignition spark. However, in my research to get going on this again - I found this thread: http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/gas-y...-sluggish.html

So, this has happened to someone else. Maybe, I'm not going crazy!!

Yesterday, on my way home from work, I stopped and got a new battery, a new spark plug, and a spark tester. I have the ignition troubleshooting section of the manual printed out. Today, I'm going to go through it and check everything again, step-by-step. I'm pretty sure that I checked out most of the ignition components last year.....but, I'll just go over them all again, just to make sure. If everything checks out, the last step of the manual says "Replace the ignitor."

The poster in the above linked thread did that, and it fixed his problem. At this point, I'm assuming that I will be ordering an ignitor soon.

I went out last night and verified that this cart has a JF2 (7 wire) ignitor module. Can anyone confirm that this is an acceptable replacement for my JF2 ignitor??
http://gilbertgolfcarparts.com/jf2-8...y-p-44386.html

Thanks,
Todd

[Prowlerguy1]

Yesterday, I went through the ignition troubleshooting checklist from the G2/G9 service manual (it's the only one I have). Most everything checked out. Some of my resistance readings were different than the specs in the manual....but I seem to have a different setup than is in the manual too.

For example: I can't take my spark plug cap off and check that. From what I can tell, the coil, wire and cap are all one molded piece. But, I got a 16.6Kohm reading. When I add up the individual components from the G2 service Manual it says the reading should be in a range of 15-22.0Kohms. So, I'm in the range.

Also, my coil pickup resistance was a little low compared with the manual.

Anyway, I installed the new battery, the new spark plug, pulled the ingnitor off and cleaned up the connector, put on the spark tester, and pulled the trigger.....the spark looked OK.

I figured "what the heck" so I put it in neutral, pulled the choke and it fired right up!!!!

That is not what it was doing the last time I was playing with it!!!!!

I secured everything and took it for a drive up and down our road for 3-4 laps. Ran to get the mail (about 1/4 mile away) and it made it there and back.

Got me...it's running. Not running real great, but it's running. It's not real peppy, seems like it doesn't have a lot of power, especially climbing the hills on our road.

It smells like it is running pretty rich - but that should be easy to adjust the mixture. I'll play with the mixture and just drive it for a while. See if it really is reliable or not. See if any conditions get better or worse.