Calling All Experts!

golfsensai

New Member
Hi all. New to the world of golf cart repair and need some help from the experts. I am helping a friend work on a cart he purchased that did not run when he bought it. Here is what it is:

1996 Club Car Powerdrive 48 Volt

Before doing any work we checked all the batteries and wires. We have 8 volts on each battery and 48 volts across the pack. The solenoid does not click when you hit the accelerator. We jumped it and the cart will run.

After reading through some threads on this site it looked like the solenoid is the most common thing to go so we replaced it and still nothing. All connections look good and not sure where to go from here. Is this something to do with the activation circuit or OBC? Please help!
 

shadowman

New Member
well one thing at 48 volts the batteries are low a good fully charged pack should put you in the 55 volt range..........so check voltage in each battery and load test each one, write #,s down and post them.............solenoid the cart ryns if you jump it....................did you put a golfcart solenoid in? was there a diode and resistor on solenoid? if so is diode in right direction...........it has a silver band on it which has to be on with the band towards positive side......................does the cart charger work when you plug it in?......if you want to check to see if its OBC related. get a 10 gage wire about 6 to 8 ft lenth.....get a few alligator clips and make yoyself a good jumper wire than put jumper wire on small post of solenoid where the yellow wire is mounted and run it over to #6 battery and clip it to neg. terminal........#6 battery is rear one on drivers side so with jumper wire in place see if cart runs if so bad OBC........ so check and test these things and post what you come up with we,ll go from there.....................lastly the 6 gage battery cable from #6 battery neg. terminal is going thur the hole in the OBC ? if not and its going around it thats your problem that cable has t run thur the OBC..........................post back...................................
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golfsensai

New Member
Yes, it is a golf cart solenoid with exact same serial # as the original in the cart. We used the existing diode and resistor that was on the old solenoid. Charger works great on other carts. The black cable does run through the OBC. The batteries were also load tested prior to the cart being purchased and are Trojans that are only a year old. I am being told that because the solenoid does not click it may be the micro switch for the accelerator? If so how do I check that?
 

HotRodCarts

Cartaholic
To check the micro use a ohm meter. You should get 0 ohms when the switch is open and a low ohm reading when the switch is activated. Also make sure the arm on the micro-switch isn't bent or broken.
 

golfsensai

New Member
Thanks Shadow and Hotrod for the responses. Here is what I was able to do tonight. I tried bypassing the OBC by jumping from the small yellow wire to ground on the #6 battery. The cart still did not move but the solenoid did now "click" when the accelerator was pressed when it didn't before. Does this make sense? Now the weird part.....reading the repair manual it said one of the causes of no click at the solenoid was a dirty controller face. We cleaned with electrical cleaner and the cart creaped a few inches after that but then nothing. We will be checking the F/R switch as well as the accelerator switch tomorrow. Could the diode be an issue here as well?
 

HotRodCarts

Cartaholic
Your need to check the battery voltage with a digital meter. I doubt if the diode is your problem. If the solenoid clicks when you bypassed the OBC there's a good chance the OBC is bad. But you need to check the batteries with a digital meter and see how low the voltage drops under a load (when the cart tries to move). You mentioned the batteries were at 8 volts. 8 volts is pretty much dead and can cause problems like your having.
 

shadowman

New Member
also you said charger works fine on other carts??? igf its not working on your cart chances are the OBC went bad........................................
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golfsensai

New Member
The voltage does not drop at all across the pack when it tries to move. I have no reason to think the charger does not work on this cart. What should the voltage be on each battery? If they are 8 volt batteries then why are they dead?
 

golfsensai

New Member
Ok guys, great news. Appartently last night when we tried to bypass the OBC we did not have a good enough connection. We did it again today and the cart runs, indicating the OBC is bad. Is there anything I need to be careful with or keep in mind when installing the new one? Thanks again for all your help!
 

shadowman

New Member
i figured it was the OBC.........make sure you disconnect main power from cart other than that take your time and make sure you wire it back up correctly.........................................
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