Need Help - Cart Won't Charge
 

My cart only recently would only hold a charge for 5 minutes. After inspecting the batteries, there wasn't much water in them. I charged the batteries fully then added distilled water until it was just above the plates. Now when I plug in the charger nothing happens. I checked the diodes, fuse, and replaced the board in my Powerwise charger and still nothing. I tried charging the batteries with a car battery charger and then plugging the cart charger back in and nothing still. Any suggestions on what to do next or where I should go from here? Is there a way I can determine if it's the charger or batteries? Thank for any help.

Re: Need Help - Cart Won't Charge
 

What is the battery pack voltage?
What are the individual battery voltages?

Re: Need Help - Cart Won't Charge
 

:iagree: with JB. Need more info . On batt voltage s , did I hear you right , you charged the batts. fully THEN added water to above the plates in battery ! , if the water in batts were way down , I'm afraid that did not help them at all , typical procedure is correct to add water after charging
But if water is very low you need to get that level up before charging
:shock:

Re: Need Help - Cart Won't Charge
 

Yes I added water after charging, the water did look pretty low. the voltage across all six batteries is reading 37.4. Anything else I can try?

Re: Need Help - Cart Won't Charge
 

Can you borrow a similar charger and see if it kicks on?

Re: Need Help - Cart Won't Charge
 

No I don't have access to one.

Re: Need Help - Cart Won't Charge
 

Sounds like you can find your way around inside the charger, so lets measure the battery sense voltage inside the charger.
Problem is that Powerwise chargers (Model 28115) had a two piece control board and some have been retrofitted with a one piece control board, so I don't know what you have, but we can still check the part of the circuit that usually causes problems and dig deeper if need be.

Do not plug charger into AC power!

With charger plugged into cart, measure voltage between heatsink diodes are mounted on and the third wire in the output cable.
The third wire might be red or green or some other color, but it isn't black or white, those are the negative and positive outputs to the battery pack.

The voltage should be identical with the voltage measure between the battery pack's main positive and main negative terminals, which you said was 37.4V and is more that enough to turn on charger.

If the voltage isn't there, the most like problem is dirty contacts in the charger's plug and cart's receptacle.
(Auxiliary contact in plug and outside pf the negative terminal in the receptacle)

Re: Need Help - Cart Won't Charge
 

The only reason I was able to find myself around the charger is because of YouTube. I actually have no knowledge of electricity. If you can give me a little more detailed instruction, I'd really appreciate it.

Re: Need Help - Cart Won't Charge
 

OK I put the meter on the heat sink plate and the red wire from the plug and it showed 0. Is there a way I can check the contacts on the plug and cart with a meter?

Re: Need Help - Cart Won't Charge
 

You can check the battery sense wire for continuity with an Ohmmeter.
Disconnect charger from cart and AC power.
Put one test lead on the third wire in the output cable and the other test lead on the Auxiliary contact in the plug. (See attachment-1)
It should read close to Zero Ohms.

When the plug in inserted in the receptacle. the Auxiliary contact touches the outside of the negative terminal in the receptacle. (See attachment-2)
The negative terminal is the brass object with black wire connected to it.

Poor connection between the Aux. Contact and the outside of the negative terminal is a common problem, so a little cleaning may be all that is needed.