DIY Lithium Ion 56 Volt Golf Cart Battery Conversion

Nubs

Cartaholic - V.I.P.
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Lloyd-ss

Active Member
I have a more general question to ask, and maybe this isn't the right board, but seeing that some experts are hanging around (and I sincerely appreciate that !), I'll ask away.

This is a 2002 Club Car DS that I got real cheap, so that I could pour buckets of money into it to make it "better", LOL.
The question is the brakes and tires. Right now it has a D&D 42A high torque motor, but brakes and tires are still stock. One rear brake locks up early but hopefully some adjusting or cleaning or turning or new shoes will fix that. I drive this around thru the woods on smooth but steep dirt trails, and on pavement. But never on the highway. Going down some of the dirt hills makes me pucker when that rear wheel(s) lock up, so I have to be careful about not doing anything stupid. It has the standard 8" wheels with 18" tires. I've got a new pair of 8" x 20" tires to put on the rear. In the back of my mind, I know that putting front disks on is the right thing to do (and I will probably do that eventually). But the front disk brake conversion really snowballs, doesn't it? You have to go to 10" wheels and a lift kit along with the disk brake kit.
All this adds up, and I do believe that the prices are reasonable, but I am wondering if there is a way to improve the brakes, at least temporarily, without going the full 10" wheel and lift kit route.
All comments are appreciated.
Thank you,
Lloyd
 

dirtysouth

Cartaholic - V.I.P. Sponsor
There's an equalizer on the j rod under the cart that is suppose to pull evenly on the brake cables. Make sure cables are free from housing. It's pretty common for them to stick as they get older.
 

dirtysouth

Cartaholic - V.I.P. Sponsor
The brakes themselves are bendix style. They have auto adjusters but they also can get stuck and make one side stick. Also, try sitting in the middle of seat and try the brakes :twocents:
 

Lloyd-ss

Active Member
Thanks dirtysouth. I will bring the cart inside and take a look and clean all of those parts to get them working evenly before I put the new batts in. It's so stinkin' hot outside that's a good reason to bring it in where its cool and relatively clean, LOL.
 

Lloyd-ss

Active Member
OK. Looking at the brakes now. This is a 2002 club car DS that I purchased in 2017, and honestly, the drums, shoes, and hardware inside the drums looks pretty new, like they were replaced shortly before I bought the cart. And basically, the cart was in nice shape overall and seemed to have been kept inside. Except that the batteries took 2 gallons of distilled water and were basically dead, but the seller had told me that, so its all cool.

But, the driver's side is locking up. Both drums looked good and measured round: 6.303" all the way around on the passenger side and 6.305 to 6.302 on the driver's side. But the drivers side has lots of dust and took some twisting to get off, but it did come off without too much of a struggle. I measured across the shoes after I got the drums off and the passenger side measured 6.302 and the drivers side measured about 6.308.
I pulled on the cables and linkages and everything looks and feels fairly clean and free.
I'll see if I can back the adjuster off on the drivers side a little and clean everything up on both sides and give it a try. I hope its that easy.
Lloyd
 

dirtysouth

Cartaholic - V.I.P. Sponsor
I believe the cables are the same length on a DS, can't remember. To be honest, I don't remember a cart that didn't lock one wheel before the other:twocents:
You should be able to get them close. I've not seen the jakes hydraulic brakes work well enough to recommend them. You should be able to find someone who put a lift on a cart and removed the front drum brakes. It would be a bolt on deal and you might have to buy an equalizer cable bracket.
I'll dig around shop tomorrow and see if I have anything
 

Nubs

Cartaholic - V.I.P.
I believe the cables are the same length on a DS, can't remember. To be honest, I don't remember a cart that didn't lock one wheel before the other:twocents:
You should be able to get them close. I've not seen the jakes hydraulic brakes work well enough to recommend them. You should be able to find someone who put a lift on a cart and removed the front drum brakes. It would be a bolt on deal and you might have to buy an equalizer cable bracket.
I'll dig around shop tomorrow and see if I have anything
I have a complete front brake assembly on my 99 carryall if that's the same:dazed: i'll have no use for them once the lift is installed.
 

Lloyd-ss

Active Member
Thanks very much gentleman. We'll see how this works out. Having brakes on the front would be nice.
After more investigation, it looks like the brake cable anchor point on the passenger side spring perch was badly bent and binding things up. Instead of the drivers side locking up it might be more a case of the passenger side barely working at all. I've got it straightened out and freed up ok, but I will put it back together tomorrow morning when the brain is awake again o_O so I don't mess up the job.
 

Lloyd-ss

Active Member
I've got the rear brakes fairly well balanced, finally, and it took a lot longer than it should have. Dirtysouth, hanging my rear end off the drives side greatly reduced the tendency of that side to lock.
After straightening some bent parts, it made the cables seem like the passenger side was 1/4" longer than the driver side. The equalizer bar that pulls the 2 cables was then at an angle and couldn't pull evenly on the 2 cables, so the driver side still locked. I ended up slipping a split cable bushing over the cable at the swagged end to effectively shorten the cable. That put the equalizer bar back into a balanced pull and it is working ok now.

Nubs, if you get a chance to look at the 99 carryall front brakes and spindles, here is a pic of the front spindle on my 2002. Your educated eye can probably tell if they are interchangeable.
Thanks,
Lloyd
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dirtysouth

Cartaholic - V.I.P. Sponsor
Good to hear. The brakes he has will work. He'd have to swap spindles with you because his have the backing plates on them. Wheel hubs are the same, drum just slides over wheel studs.
 

Lloyd-ss

Active Member
LED lights
I installed all the LED lights on the driver side of the car. The front turn signal and rear brake/tail light both work like a charm. One tenth of the amps and just as much light as the old incandescents. I can highly recommend them.
But the H3 LED (300mA) replacement for the H3 Halogen (55 watt, 4 amps) headlight (fog lamp) gets a big thumbs down. The LED on the left in the picture is very dim and the LED pattern gives a kind of cross pattern. I drove it outside in the dark just now, where the Halogen and the LED were shining on a tree line about 100 yards away. The trees looked pretty well lit up, but when I covered the Halogen with my hand, it was like somebody turned the lights out! The Halogens will stay as the headlights until I hear of a decent replacement LED.

I had done an HID to LED headlight conversion on my wife's Prius 2 years ago and that went pretty well. The HID lights burned out about every 6 months. I was hoping these LED headlamps L-Led_R-Halogen.jpg
------LED left, Halogen right

would be good too. Oh well, 2 out of 3 ain't too bad.
Lloyd
 

Lloyd-ss

Active Member
Just stripped the old batteries and harnesses out and gave it a nice bath.
Heart transplant starting shortly.

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Reasonably clean after some good scrubbing. I rolled it outside on the sloped driveway to do the hose work. Wow, it sure rolls a whole lot easier without the batteries in it! :thumbsup:
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Lloyd-ss

Active Member
This was a trial fit of the Li Ion battery and controller pack into the cart.
This assembly weighs 84 pounds. The six LA batteries that I removed weighed a total of 384 pounds.
I won't know the actual weight savings until I make up and weigh all the cables, etc, and weigh what came out and what went in.

At 84 pounds, this is not a one man job, so I jury rigged an arm off the lift table. It worked well, but I think an engine hoist with screw tilting deal on it would work even better. It all has to be tilted and slid in at an angle. And the lids can come on and off the bins.

I have to take it all back out and make a false bottom for this to rest securely on. It's just resting on some pieces of 2x4 now.

Now that I know how much room there is underneath the battery bins, I can fabricate the limit switch mounting and linkages for the brake and go pedals, and the linkage for the 0-5k throttle pot. Those might end up hidden inside the front dash with an access panel. Not sure yet. they need to be accessible for periodic adjustment.

Having fun, and learning, too.

The lift arm.
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Being tilted into position.
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All set into place.
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