'97 EZGo low power mystery

[FollyBeachEZRider]

Hey y'all - I've been scouring the forum for the last month as I work through each step on this - thank you for all the passive help already. Now I'm stumped.

Back story, warranted to not waste y'alls' time: I bought this cart from my neighbor and immediately fixed the stuck accelerator cable - was feeling pretty good about the easy fix and the good deal. It's my first cart. I cleaned up all the rust and painted it blue and made her pretty. I grew up working on air-cooled VWs so I'm not a complete noob but I'm no expert. But the cart was a little sluggish, and neighbor shows me how to tighten the starter belt. I tighten it up to what feels like 3/8 inch deflection and the thing runs great for a few days, tops out around 25 mph. Then one day it's hard to start, and once it's running it has no power - like 5-7 mph tops.

•*I took off the air filter and sprayed carb cleaner in the carb (I have not removed the carb and thoroughly cleaned it). Didn't help.
•*I adjusted the valves to .005 (saw recommendations for .004 and .006) - they were pretty much already there, so it didn't help. Compression is 130-140 in both cylinders.
•*I changed the plugs.
•*I was suspicious of exhaust blockage, but the muffler is rusted on. I'd have to cut it off and drill out the screws and cut new threads to put a new one on. It's putting consistently out of the top of the muffler when it's running so I feel good about that (I removed the pipe that neighbor had taped onto that, if my pictures successfully post).

So after all that I decided maybe the belt (HP2003 is what neighbor had on it) is worn, although it looked pretty new. The cart will rev up to high RPM in neutral, clutches doing what they should, but just won't get there in drive or reverse. So after reading lots on the forum I order a Gates 6098 thinking the shorter belt will help. I put it on yesterday and drive it down the street and I still only have 5 mph or so. Then after a couple minutes, headed home to figure out next steps, I lose power completely. It'll only inch forward. It's back in the yard and it won't start. The front (drive?) clutch isn't closing at all to pinch the belt now, even in neutral.

I just cut the 6098 off and put the HP2003 back on and same deal. So I figure maybe the clutch had issues under load all along and now I've really busted it, but when I try to remove the clutch retaining bolt to get the dust cover off and check it out, the pulleys just spin freely. I've found info here about some clutch retaining bolts being left or right hand thread, changing in '97, but that's not the issue. It seems like I need to jam a screwdriver in somewhere to stop the pulley from spinning to get that bolt off, but I can't figure out where/how to do that, and everything else I'm reading here indicates that I should be able to turn that bolt right out (and thus, that the engine shouldn't be spinning). Didn't think this was supposed to be the hard part of removing the clutch.

That's my story. I am bout stuck.

[Jasarc3]

I used a strap wrench to hold the primary when removing the bolt and when pulling the clutch from crankshaft.

[Trukntigger]

Can't speak from experience on the cart but on my old artic cat cheetah snowmobile used a ratchet winch strap around bell housing to hold it tight while breaking bolt loose. Just did two laps around it and secured to frame, ratchet snug and did the trick.

[FollyBeachEZRider]

Thanks! I got a strap around it, tied it to the frame and got the bolt loose. It got dark and buggy so I didn't get the dust cover off yet. It'll be wild if after all this it was the clutch all along and I just needed to break it a bit more to find out. But the clutches did seem to be working perfectly in neutral with the HP2003 belt it came with. I'll post any updates.

[CP241]

If the primary clutch isnt closing, are you 100% sure the engine is running and not just the starter/generator turning it?

Can you check compression again? 130psi is really quite low. Should be 160+ minimum. Make sure to hold the carb open with your fingers while checking compression, dont relay on the pedal.

When you adjusted the valves, did the 2 in the center have a lot more threads showing on top of the nut than the outside 2 valves?

[FollyBeachEZRider]

CP241, thanks for the help! My response was delayed by the site migration. Glad we're up and running again. Here's where I'm at:

Compression is 150 in one cylinder and 160 in the other.
All four valves are showing about one thread - nearly equal across all four.

I took off the carb and soaked it and blew air threw it, and with that back on and the old HP2003 back on, it's running again, but only at 7-8 mph or so, and it's putting out thin white smoke.

I checked my spark again, and I'm only getting spark to one cylinder, so perhaps the issue all along (or one of them) is that I've been running on a single cylinder. I checked resistance using the two tabs on top of the coil and got 3.9, which should be in range. I've swapped the new plugs to test those and they're both good. It could be the coil wire from one side, but they're not detachable to test.

If I'm getting spark to one side but not the other, and the plugs are good, is the next step to replace the coil, even though it's showing 3.9? Could it be the voltage regulator or ignitor if I'm getting spark to one side? (Seems like a no, but just checking).

Thanks!

[FollyBeachEZRider]

CP241 let me know if you have the ignition coil off that one you're parting out. Thanks!