Ok, what did I mess up?
 

I recently acquired a 96 Club Car 48V that came in the backyard of a house purchase. Decided to fix it up for resale. First, I determined the batteries wouldn't take a charge. They were an older (and mismatched) 6X8V pack. Since the cart was located a mile or so from my house (and garage with all its wonderful tools), I bought a new set of batteries and drove it home just to get it out of there. It was slow to take off...seemingly no torque, but would go 25 MPH...so I thought- sweet! Turns out it has a 2016 AMD high speed motor on it, but looks like it has the stock Curtis 36/48 controller. It was kinda was slow to get to 25, but it did it. :lol:

Now at my tools -I mean house- I tried to charge it again with new batts...including borrowing a buddy's CC charger. No dice. Doing my research here, I figured it was just a bad OBC, and decided to go with a new "smart" charger and remove the OBC entirely. So I did. I rewired the cart after further BGW research, and while I was at it tried to chase down the issue with all the lights that don't work. The Smart charger works just fine, which backs up the OBC theory.

Yesterday, I pushed the cart backward into the garage (about 10 ft) so I could work on it while it's been raining. I noticed it made a clicking sound when I was pushing it. I finished up all the wiring today and took it for a test. When I pushed the throttle, it shuddered a noticeable bit taking off and slowly moved. It did this in F and R. As it did, this loud speed-related clicking sound was happening--think sticking a few baseball cards into a bicycle spoke. The cart doesn't seem to want to go much over 5-10 mph now. Kinda weird, since it didn't make any clicking sounds on the initial drive home. Did I mess something up pushing it backwards like that? Seems like it's all kinds of screwed now. Mayday!!!

Also, lights still don't work...except the left turn signal, but it doesn't flash. I'm probably going to have to rewire the whole 12V system. :roll:

Re: Ok, what did I mess up?
 

IT's normal for the solenoid to engage and the cart to resist motion if you push it without putting it in "Tow Mode". That's not a problem. I would suspect maybe a bad solenoid. The Alltrax has a USB port that you can connect a laptop to. You need to load the Alltrax software on the laptop but it's very handy to diagnose problems like these. It will show you all of the inputs and errors if it senses any. You can take a log of the results and share it with Alltrax if you need help diagnosing the problem.

SOrry - saw your stats but that's a different cart. You don't have Alltrax in this one.

Re: Ok, what did I mess up?
 

We need to know if it’s a series cart or a Sepex. Does it have a big lever for FnR or a small rocker switch?

Re: Ok, what did I mess up?
 

Correct...this is not the cart in my sig. It's a Series motor with the big FnR lever. The solenoid audibly closes when throttle applied, and appears functional. The clicking is coming from the rear when the cart is rolling. I've read that it could be the bumper on the motor? Seems awfully coincidental that it just now went out after I drove it home and removed the OBC and wired it all back up. It's a nice cart...it cleaned up great and has a newer motor. Just need to work out these bugs.

Re: Ok, what did I mess up?
 

Well bad news is that motor is toast.
Good news is you get to do a full upgrade now! :thumbup:

No telling what kind of treatment the motor had before, but sounds like it lifted a comm bar or ate the brushes to bits. Likely the armature is trashed, but it wouldn’t hurt anything to pull the motor and take it apart to see if there’s anything that could be fixable.

Re: Ok, what did I mess up?
 

Thanks...kinda what I was afraid of. Not exactly good news. Just more money I've gotta dump into this cart before I can sell it. :thumbdown:

I'll take it apart and see what's up. If there's any way to repair it, I'd like to try. My wife will straight up murder me if I put any more major bucks into it. Sad part is by the time I'm done fiddling with it (motor, 12v wiring), the "new" batteries won't be new anymore, so there goes that selling point.

Re: Ok, what did I mess up?
 

UPDATE
The clack-clack-clack rolling sound went away. Wife and I took it down the street so I could show her what the issue was. It started out clicking in reverse, then forward when I floored it, slowly lugging along and clacking. All of a sudden, it just kinda lurched a little and then took off. The clicking sound faded away and by the time we turned back around and got back to the house, its was its old self again...zipping along at 25 mph. It still has NO torque from a stop, but once it starts rolling it scoots. Weird. It almost seems like it started doing the sound suddenly when I pushed it with the pack disconnected into the garage, then went away when I ran it under power good. This thing doesn't have the "tow/run" switch I'm accustomed to, but that doesn't mean I'm not concerned I didn't screw something up. I'm going to probably have to re-wire the 12V lighting before I sell it, but I'd hate to pawn it off on someone with a motor that's questionable. Thoughts?

Re: Ok, what did I mess up?
 

With the way the used cart market is right now, just be honest. Say it runs and drives, but the motor is questionable. Does 25mph but takes a long time to get there and mention the mystery clicking that went away. Maybe knock a few hundred bucks off the price of what you could get if it was A+ perfect to cover for a replacement motor if necessary and call it a day.

It’s a win win. You don’t have to put any extra big bucks into it, and sell it with a clear conscious. Whoever buys it, gets a little better deal because it may have a bad motor or it may just need brushes or something cheap fix. Either way they knew about it before they bought it.

Todays used cart market is insane. It will sell. As long as you’re up front and honest and say the price reflects the work needed you’ll be in good shape.

Just my .02. I’ve never had a problem doing this, it’s always moved quickly and people generally appreciate the honesty

Re: Ok, what did I mess up?
 

I noticed it was listing, and the left rear tire was horribly underinflated, so that may have been rubbing and causing the clacking sounds. I'll drive it some more to be sure (and fix the 12V system) before I list it for sale. Thanks.