Complete Electric Upgrade for 36 Volt 2002 Club Car DS V-glide

Lloyd-ss

Active Member
Yes, when I talked to D & D when I ordered the motor they said a lift kit would be needed to make the job go smoothly. But I never seem to take the path of least resistance, but I always learn a lot, LOL. I still think shifting the entire axle and motor assembly toward the driver side and then using a negative offset wheel on the passenger side only, will get the job done. Or I might just end up regretting my decision and end up installing a lift kit in the end. You never know.
Most of the driving will be on smooth pavement or smooth dirt roads. To the garden, neighbors house, my shooting range. Beagler, you were talking about some long term projects, so you know how it goes. Work on it some. Ponder what you did. Work on it some more. The process is part of the fun.
 

Beagler

Member
absolutely Research Tear it down sit in an old chair in garage Drink a couple beers, smoke a cigar more research drink a couple more beers.. All kidding aside Hot Rod and this forum has bee a great source of info and advice... Have agreat week end:usa:
 

Lloyd-ss

Active Member
I got the rear axle assembly out of the cart and you can see how much longer the new motor is.
The second picture shows how the axle will be shifted in relation to the leaf springs to give more clearance between the end of the motor and the frame rails of the cart. The dark gray image of the springs show their new location. It looks like it will work.
 

Beagler

Member
Interesting project! Do you have the welding ability to move or extend spring brackets that are on axle ! If you go with a neg offset on pass side will the tire hit the spring? Also need a wheel spacer on driver side for tracking. I am very interested in how much difference that motor makes speed and torque. You did say this is a resister cart I believe. I have an older one. Did you go with the 36 volt or 48 volt? Neat project! :usa:
 

Lloyd-ss

Active Member
I've got a small lathe and mill to make some parts as needed, and my son-in-law is a mechanic and can do any welding of steel that I need, but not aluminum. The axle assy is only being shifted about half the width of the spring pad, about 3/4" or 7/8", so I am hoping that just a shim between the spring pad and axle for the un-supported section will do the trick. I'll take some pictures of the modification, and I don't think I will need any welding done. The passenger side brake linkage is going to end up real close to the axle U-bolt and that might take some head scratching to figure out. The brakes on this cart worked really good and I don't want to screw that up!!

Beagler, I took to heart what you said about suspension travel with the extra loads and am fabricating some blocks to drop the front end of the leafsprings about 2". That should raise the back end of the cart up about 1" which hopefully will be enough to make a difference.

I'll definitely let you know about the performance of the new motor. D&D said it has 40% more torque than stock, so I am expecting a noticeable boot in the butt. The difference with the new batteries was noticeable, and I am expecting the same boost from the motor. I've got some long grades on my property for seat-of-the-pants before and after comparison. I'm going to weigh the 2 motors for comparison, too.

Beagler and Hot Rod, I really appreciate your comments and advice on the project. You give me things to think about and help me approach this with a little more confidence so it doesn't feel like I am going in blind on the project. Thank you guys!
Lloyd-ss
 

Lloyd-ss

Active Member
Funny conversation with my wife. We've been married 42 years and she's pretty great, and knows me pretty well.
So yesterday afternoon I walk back up to the house after taking the rear axle out of the cart. She had fixed herself a margarita (luckily) and was setting in a chair outside enjoying the beautiful weather. I sit down in the chair next to her.
Her: So, what you been doing down there all afternoon?
Me: Oh, uh, just some maintenance on the cart.
Her: Really? I didn't think there was that much maintenance on a golf cart. No engine or anything and you put new batteries in a couple of days ago.
Me: You know, brakes and stuff.
Her: The brakes seemed pretty good to me, what else is there?
(I'm thinking, "busted," might as well confess. Her margarita was almost empty so I had a decent chance.)
Me: Well, you know with all the hills and things, I got a new motor with more torque so we can all ride with the grand kids.
Her: Ha ha. So how much did that cost?
Me: Well, you know the money I saved on the new batteries? Well, after I sell the old motor, that will cover the cost of the new motor.
Her: Ha, ha ha, sorry, I already spent that on a bunch of summer clothes for the grand kids.
Me: Oh well, the new motor will be nice for all of us.
Then she takes out her phone and texts our 2 grown daughters, and shows me the text: "Dad is already putting a bigger motor in the golf cart. He is incurable, LOL."

I am a lucky guy.
Lloyd-ss
 

HotRodCarts

Cartaholic
My wife gave up on me a long time ago. After being with me through 39 years of drag racing she's seen it all. She quit asking questions a long time ago. :rotflmao:
 

Lloyd-ss

Active Member
It's all modified and installed. Still need to hook the wiring back up and get an offset wheel for the passenger side.
The new motor is about 1/2" bigger in diameter, and 2-5/8" longer. Old motor weighs 33 pounds and new weighs 60 pounds.

This is a view from the rear of the axle and motor assy ready to be re-installed. It's a little difficult to see, but the axle assy is offset toward the left (in relation to the leaf springs) to give more frame clearance at the right hand end of the motor.

Here are the brackets (2" rise) I made to raise the back end of the cart up a little to compensate for the usual extra weight that will be in the cart. These brackets also kind of roll the motor forward in the cart and that gives a little more clearance between the motor and the right rear shock. Overall, it looks like all the clearances will be ok.
 

Lloyd-ss

Active Member
REPORT ON THE D & D 42A Motor Performance.

I've had the new D&D 42A motor installed, and have used it, for nine days now. It is listed as giving 40% more torque, but no additional top speed, to the Club Car. To recap the project, this is a 2002, club car, 36 volt, V-Glide (resistor) control system. No electronics or other upgrades. The 42A motor will work on either 36 or 48 volts, but I stayed with the 36 volts set-up.

I have a "test hill" that is paved, about 200 feet long, with a 20% grade (fairly steep). With the original motor and new batteries, the cart would make it up the hill ok with one person, but with 2 people, it slowed quite a bit and felt like it barely made it up the hill.

With the new motor, I think my expectations were a little bit off. I was expecting the cart to zip up the hill, but instead it just pulled solidly up the hill, not fast, but steady. Maybe like a diesel: torque, not speed. But since I first tried it on that hill with that new motor, I've re-tried it many times. By myself; with me and my wife; with me and my wife and 2 grand kids. And each time it felt the same: it pulled steadily up the hill without hesitation. Not fast, just confidently steady.

Bottom line is that the motor made a significant difference in pulling power. Load it up, and it keeps on pulling. Money well spent.
Lloyd-ss
 

Lloyd-ss

Active Member
Not sure of the top speed but I can stopwatch a measured distance and find out. You've got me curious now. I'll check tire pressures first cause I've got at least one slow leak.

One interesting thing about fitting the motor into the club car chassis. After going thru all the gyrations of shifting the rear axle 3/4" to the left to give frame clearance on the right end of the motor, I am not positive that was totally necessary. The more serious interference point was with the top right shock mount that is welded to the frame just to the rear of the motor. The new longer motor would definitely hit that. But it looks like just putting a simple wedge between the spring pads and the springs to roll the motor and axle forward, away from the shock mount might have fixed the problem. Hot Rod, I know you are familiar with those from your drag racing days. A wedge that was 4" long, and about 5/16" thick at the rear, tapering to zero at the front would probably give adequate clearance for the motor.....maybe. Certainly a whole lot simpler.

I have a couple of questions if you would be so kind.
1) When the go pedal is floored with the V-glide, full battery power is going to the motor, correct? Therefore, an electronic controller wouldn't make any difference in speed or power when the pedal is floored, correct?

2) It looks like all the battery cables on the cart are 4 gauge. Is it worth swapping them out for 2 gauge? With all the hills I have, seems like it might be prudent.

3) With economy in mind, what about the solenoid, F/R switch, etc?

4) When going over a big bump, I was thinking about that heavy motor being cantilevered off of the differential housing, supported mainly with those 3 bolts on the top. Should I install a block between the outboard end of the motor and the axle tube to take some of the load off of the motor mounting bolts? Have you heard of the differential housing cracking at the motor bolt holes?

Thanks again for the advice and support.
Lloyd-ss
 

HotRodCarts

Cartaholic
Yes we used to use the wedge blocks to adjust pinion angle back in the old days. As far as your questions go:

1 - You are correct at full throttle you wouldn't notice any speed increase with a series motor between the resistor coils or controller.
2 - 4 gauge cables should be good enough. As long as none of the cables are getting hot they should be ok.
3 - Same thing as long as the solenoid and forward and reverse switch aren't getting hot they're fine.
4 - You could make a bracket on the end of the motor that allows you to bolt it to the rear end you support the weight. You might want to call D&D and see what they say.
 

Beagler

Member
Lloyd Great news on your conversion and all good questions many of which I too was wondering about. Question one was the one I was most concerned about.. Will a controller make any difference at full throttle . I'm not sure Hot Rod addressed that. Doesn't controller replace coils? So the plus with this motor over changing rear gears is you keep your top end in all conditions except hills and you have increased torque and load capacity on hills? Correct!
 

Beagler

Member
Lloyd Just checking in to see what your opinion is now after having motor install for 2 months. Also have to address my comment on question 1 . As I was rereading this thread I see I made a comment on question one and completely missed Hot Rods answer.

(Sorry Hot Rod! ) I have been otherwise sidetracked and away from this project. As you might remember I was going to change rear gears to 15: 1 for torque. Found these gears for $245.00 no bad but rethinking the whole thing based on your experience.. Hot Rod do you have any thoughts on this as I am mech incline and not overly concerned about opening up rear end . but not sure how complicated this will be . My reasoning is I have 3 stock 36 volt motors for change outs if one would fail. That being said if I get in over my head I could easily end up with the cost of a high torque motor.. If I was going to go with gears is there any one who could walk me tru this. Or do you think I should just go with High torque motor? :usa:
 

HotRodCarts

Cartaholic
A high Torque motor would be easier. The gears aren't all that hard either. I think there's a thread somewhere on the forum with detailed instructions on changing gears in a Club Car. There should also be a Cub Car rear end diagram in the resource section of the forum.
No problem on missing a post I do it quite a bit myself.:)
 

Lloyd-ss

Active Member
Hi guys. Sorry I have been negligent about following up on this, and Beagler, I missed your April 24th question, too.
Just seat of the pants, the top speed doesn't seem to have changed, but the torque going up hills is definitely better. The speed drops, but it keeps a steady pull no matter what the load. My wife loves the cart, too, and I have instructed her to more or less use the Go pedal like an on-off switch: either floored, or off.
One thing I have been meaning to do is check the voltage and current while driving up a hill, and also the voltage drop on some of the cables to see where the losses are. Hot Rod, some of the longer cables do get warm from climbing that long hill, but I am really curious about the voltage drop across the solenoid, fwd-rev switch, and the speed controller at full throttle. Those all look like weak links, but I don't know.

Hot Rod, I did fabricate a contoured aluminum block fit between the outboard end of the motor and axle tube, and used a large hose clamp to hold it all together. I have seen enough broken aluminum castings in my life and didn't want to see another.

Beagler, here are my naive thoughts about the high torque gears. I could be totally wrong and don't mind being told so if that is the case. It's all about learning and trading our experiences. So here we go: the high torque motor has lots of extra windings (longer and heavier) to develop higher torque from the same voltage and current. To me, it is basically a more efficient motor. But still, when the batteries get low it won't make as much torque. With the high torque gear set, the torque will always be there, even when the batteries start to get low. Also, with these series wound motors, their speed is dependent on the amount of load that is on it, so using a high torque gear set is kinda like lightening the load on the motor to let it spin easier. If you already have some spare stock motors, maybe the gear set is the way to go. I wish I had taken a closer look at the gears and differential arrangement when I had the motor off, but it shouldn't be too hard to swap the gears out. Without splitting it, I really couldn't tell. Beagler, do you have bigger-than-stock tires on your cart? That has a negative affect on the torque if you do.
Lloyd-ss
 

Beagler

Member
Thanks Guys For the very reasons that you had mentioned lloyd that has been my thought all along Less wear and tear on motor
an I actually would like the lower top end speed accompanied with high torque as I am traveling rough terrain and hilly slopes and prefer to crawl around but at slower speeds . Not the best for coil cart but it actually is working out quite well. Have to let cool from time to time.. Hot Rod thanks for info will look for that thread and have already looked at some of the resources diagram. Kind of busy looking prints may have to print out to get better look. Yes lift kit and larger tires. Fully aware of torque loss thats why I only went up one size from 18 in to 20 in. This cart being all stock except tires and lift kit dose surprisingly well on steep inclines with two hunters ,yes it slows down considerably but then settles in at constant speed and just keeps chugging along. But we don't ride around just to ride around it is a tool to get us from one location to another and gets plenty of rest between. Guess you could say we traded golf clubs and ball for Guns and Beagles.:usa:
 

Lloyd-ss

Active Member
Hot Rod, you asked a while back about the top speed with the new D&D 42A high torque motor. That motor is spec'd for more torque, not more speed. I finally got around to testing that on a fully charged batteries.
130 foot long speed trap, 7.7 seconds = 14.2 mph. The speed trap had a very slight down hill slope of 2 feet total in the 130 feet. The cart has the stock 18" tires.

BTW, I have been doing more testing and measuring some voltage drops under load, etc, and the short 9" cables between the batteries do get hot when climbing a long hill, floored, under heavy load. Each of those 5 cables had a voltage drop of about 600 milivolts, so that is 3 volts drop on just those 5 cables. That seems like a lot for a 36 volt system. This is an on-going project so I will keep posting as I piddle around.
Beagler, if you get to installing that high torque gear set, I'll be really curious to know what you your impressions are.
Lloyd
P.S, I might have already said this, but my wife originally didn't want the cart, but now I can hardly get her out of it, LOL.
 
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