Accessories Lose Power When Gas Pedal is Pressed

BarberShop615

BarberShop615

New Member
I’m the default golf cart repair and customization guy with our friends, but I’m no pro! My friend has a 2015 EZGO TXT Freedom gas cart that he bought used with the headlight/tail light/turn signal kit already installed. He wanted to wire up some 12v accessories, so I threw my multimeter on the solenoid and had ~12v so I connected the accessories to it. While sitting still everything 12v works perfectly, but as soon as the gas pedal is pressed they stop working. They continue to have no power while driving and come back on once the cart has stopped. Do I need to wire a relay to the accessories? Is the solenoid or battery bad? My next troubleshooting steps are going to be to test the voltage on the solenoid while the gas pedal is pressed down (on a jack), both in forward and reverse. Also I want to attach one of the accessories directly to the battery temporarily to see if the same thing happens.

I feel like I’m dancing around finding a solution, but decided to ask the smarter golf cart community. Apologies for my lack of understanding on this, but I really appreciate any help yall can offer!
 
Quick update: attaching the accessory directly to the battery allows the accessory to function while the gas pedal is pressed, so I’m guessing there’s something going on with the solenoid?
 
Diode said:
My guess is he hooked it to the solenoid small wires both sides of the solenoid small wires would be hot with the cart not running once the card starts the negative side which he hooked it to goes negative and a light stopped working
Click to expand...
No, then they would have only worked with the pedal pressed if that. He probably hooked up to both big terminals, which will read 12v with the solenoid open. The terminal connected to battery positive was obviously the positive, then the negative circuit was completed from the accessories grounding through the starter generator on the other post. As soon as the pedal is pressed the solenoid closes and now you have no more voltage potential since both terminals are connected together and are both positive 12v. Sounds like there is nothing wrong with the golf cart and the only error was of the user variety.
 
Isn't the solenoid hot all the time and the foot switch brings the one side low if so I'm right did you hook up to the small terminals on the solenoid
 
Golf Cart Wizard said:
No, then they would have only worked with the pedal pressed if that. He probably hooked up to both big terminals, which will read 12v with the solenoid open. The terminal connected to battery positive was obviously the positive, then the negative circuit was completed from the accessories grounding through the starter generator on the other post. As soon as the pedal is pressed the solenoid closes and now you have no more voltage potential since both terminals are connected together and are both positive 12v. Sounds like there is nothing wrong with the golf cart and the only error was of the user variety.
Click to expand...
I think you're spot on. I tested voltage on the big terminals and got ~12V so I thought I was good, but every time I pressed the gas pedal the accessories lost power. I've hooked up straight to the battery, which seems to be the recommendation from everyone. I have only ever worked on my 48V Yamaha Drive which I just converted to Lithium Ion, but have always wired up accessories through a reducer. I assumed that going straight to the battery was a no-no but we're going to wire the accessories to a distribution block that connects to the battery. Appreciate all the help, hopefully I can be useful on this forum at some point too!
 
BarberShop615 said:
I think you're spot on. I tested voltage on the big terminals and got ~12V so I thought I was good, but every time I pressed the gas pedal the accessories lost power. I've hooked up straight to the battery, which seems to be the recommendation from everyone. I have only ever worked on my 48V Yamaha Drive which I just converted to Lithium Ion, but have always wired up accessories through a reducer. I assumed that going straight to the battery was a no-no but we're going to wire the accessories to a distribution block that connects to the battery. Appreciate all the help, hopefully I can be useful on this forum at some point too!
Click to expand...
12V accessories should not be connected to the pack of an electric cart
they should always be connected to the single 12V battery of a gas cart
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom