OT: CLUB CAR GOLF KART QUESTION

Hey Guys How are you?

Just 1 quick question: I have a club car Electric Golf kart. I put the charger on it today because it started to loss power, It was on the charger about 4 hours and I went to check it
And was reading all most 10%, but the charger box was hotter than hot to touch. Is that right? The fuse was not burnt out or at least it did not look like it: Again should the charger be that hot? What is your thoughts:
MANY THANKS:
JR.FRYE

carefully check all the battery connections, should not be any warm ones. clean all connections,put a load tester on each battery.
I was a Harley golf car service man for over 35 years, and they all have connection problems.

I have a 1994 EZ GO 36 V wondering for reasons of getting around at tractor shows.

fields sometimes have terrain much more different than a golf course.
Question is since the power mode is basically a rheostat, and single speed motor.

Will it hurt it to climb for a period of time say maybe 4 or 5 min. ? depending on foot traffic .

I know of one show we go to takes about 10 min walking to reach parking lot pretty far from the main show area.

All of the newer ones have solid state speed controlers and runing at slow speed should not hurt them. the older ones had resister speed controles and you could build up a lot of heat. That is one reason that I prefer gas powered cars.

Go to Harbor freight and buy your self a 100 amp load tester, a hydrometer and a voltmeter. Test each battery, fill with distilled water each time you charge it. If a battery is using water most likely it is a bad battery. Don't drain a battery more than 50%. Don't recharge a hot battery, wait for them to cool down first. If need be, remove the batteries and charge each with a 6v charger or put two batteries in series and charge two of them with a 12v charger. Most golf cart charges charge at 20 amps for 12 hours or more. Load test each battery, hydrometer test each cell, clean all terminals and coat them with a grease that prevents corrosion. Remove any battery that fails the load test or hydrometer test. All batteries must have the same electrical properties, amp hour, capacity and volts. Make a wiring diagram before you begin removing wires. Take a pic too.

When your charger is on, the total output voltage is 3-4 volts more than 36v on the older golf cart and same for newer 48v carts, 3-4 volts more.

Had a charger go bad and it melted the insulation off transformers secondary windings and the output was only 2vdc.

Diodes go bad and many times the electronic brain box that turns the charger off goes out or shuts off too soon. By pass the brain box and see what the output is. Put your charger on a timer and charge it for 12 hours at a time and do hydrometer checks checks on each cell.

Good luck. If you can't do the above, move to a retirement village and the retired people can show you how to keep a golf cart going.