Hot Battery and Forward Reverse Switch

OleTimer

New Member
I have a 97 CC which I have tricked out a bit.
Jakes lift kit with big tires
Plum Quick motor
Altrax 500 amp controller
2 ga Cables
HD Solenoid
HD forward/reverse switch

I have heat problems. 1st problem is the battery. The battery on the far right side gets too hot. The terminals get so hot the terminals unsoldered themselves twice (2 replacement batteries). The new #2 cables on the other batteries stay cool and and the far right on the inboard side still gets hot.

The next problem is the forward/reverse switch, The stock switch got hot, so I replaced it with a heavy duty one. 2 months later the new switch melted. I got a new one. It gets pretty hot too.

I am 60+ years old. My wife and I just drive it around the neighborhood and it is flat (no hills). The cart doesn't get much abuse.

Any thoughts on what may be causing these heat problems?

TIA

Woody
 

Diode

Cartaholic - V.I.P. Sponsor
Start by moving your cables around and see if the problem follows or remains at the same batteries / F R switch. you have a bad connection, dirty, loose, bad wire, something in the circuit is loading up.
 

OleTimer

New Member
Earlier I had #4 cable on the cart. I switched to #2 welding cable to solve the heat problem, everything was crimped and soldered with new lugs. This addition of the new cables didn't change anything, probably made it worse for the switch.
sad.gif


Is there any way to test the cable under load (or somehow) to determine where the restriction is? All the nuts with washers are very tight.

Woody
 

shadowman

New Member
how are your driving habits? do you drive around at like half pedal? if so try driving it faster and see if that does anything although it shouldn,t get hot even driving slow you never know......where did you get your cables? it sounds like its a cable issue.................have you changed all your cables to 2 gage? not just battery cables.......................................
cool.gif
 

dougmcp

New Member
If the cables were crimped then soldered they should be OK, if they were soldered then crimped you may have a problem.
Heating can only be caused by poor cables, bad connections or an extreme power draw.
Maybe you have a mechanical problem, have you checked to see if your brakes are dragging?
 

seastar

New Member
If the problem persists through 2 sets of cables, (#4 & #2), I would think that it is not the cables and look elsewhere. You mention 2 replacement batteries, how about the others?
 

OleTimer

New Member
I have #2 welding cables through out. The lugs were crimped and then immersion soldered.
The other batteries get a little warm but not hot. The cables and batteries (current and replacement) get quite hot only in the far right battery position.

I'll try swapping up cables with other batteries, but I thought moving to larger cables would have solved that problem.

The brakes aren't dragging. I drive it with the peddle on the floor or close to it. My wife drives it mostly at half throttle.

Would spraying down the F/R switch with contact cleaner be a good thing?

Thanks for the responses

Woody
 

Diode

Cartaholic - V.I.P. Sponsor
Yes going to larger cables is better unless the ends are not making good contact. moving them around may show this take the last two from the right and swap them with the left lets start there.
 

OleTimer

New Member
Well I got a chance the swap the battery cables around. There was no change.

This is what I found. It is the negative terminals on 2 right hand batteries. Both heat up, but the forward one heats up the most. It is the right front that I have replaced twice and both time it was the negative terminal that desoldered.

Strangely the F/R switch did not heat up. I wonder what changed?

Woody
 

Diode

Cartaholic - V.I.P. Sponsor
Far right really does not have much meaning drivers side or passenger side the negative post is it the negative post for the -48 volts
 

Diode

Cartaholic - V.I.P. Sponsor
If the F/R is no longer getting hot then something has changed !!!

are the output wires from the F/R new also
 

OleTimer

New Member
It is the passenger side where I am having the heat problems. Both negative terminals on the passenger side are heating up. It forward battery is what I have replaced twice for excessive heat and desoldering of the negative terminal.

Woody
 

OleTimer

New Member
Somewhere on one of these sites I read that the batteries on the passenger side are usually the first to go bad. I am wondering if that is a heat related issue.

Woody
 

Diode

Cartaholic - V.I.P. Sponsor
You might be talking about the 4 x 12volt batteries on Precedents they pull off the far right battery for lights and accessories.

you have a bad connection, wire, battery something and your going to need to keep swapping things till you get it.

One at a time so you can trace out the problem.
 

OleTimer

New Member
All of the cables running to a battery, motor, controller, solenoid and F/R switch are #2 welding cable. The rest of thesmall gauge wiring is the original equipment or wire that came with the accessory. Accessories amount to a 48 to 12 voltage reducer, lights, horn and battery state indicator. (no sound systems or anything else drawing much power)

Woody
 

Diode

Cartaholic - V.I.P. Sponsor
Isn't the far right battery passenger side the +48 for the Pack (pack meaning all batteries) give me some voltage readings each battery sitting and under load (jack up rear ene and run it with meter hooked up voltage under load.

and the same thing with the pack sitting and under load.
 

OleTimer

New Member
Diode, thanks for your responses, but pardon my ignorance. I don't understand how how this test is done. I have a VOM and know how to use it. But what I don't understand it where I attach the leads to the batteries. I presume I leave all the cables connected, Now using the forward passenger battery as an example, I connect one lead to the negative and the other to the positive terminal and record the voltage. Then do this to each battery. It seems that since the batteries are in series, they would all give the same voltage reading, particularly under load?? Or do I measure this voltage from a single negative location and measure each battery positive?
Please walk me through how to do this.

Thanks
Woody
 
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