Buggies Gone Wild Golf Cart Forum - View Single Post

RGrove · 10-28-2010, 10:16 PM

Thanks gornoman and scottyb for the input and advice. It seems my charger was indeed bad.

Here's the current situation with my old Cushman. Before putting the cart on a friend's charger, I checked batteries for water level and connections for corrosion. Didn't find anything other than a couple of cells being slightly low on water, which I replenished. All connections were corrosion free. After charging on friend's charger, all batteries were 6.5v except one that was 6.4v, total across pack was 38.9v. I drove the cart around the first 9 holes and it seemed like it was running like it used to before the recent problems started. No speed demon, especially up a grade, but certainly good enough to get me around and play golf.

After that excursion, the pack was down to 38.4v. I had an old spare charger that I put it on, but I'm concerned that charger is not working properly either, as the ammeter needle didn't move much when I plugged it in. Played about 15 holes today and cart seemed good. Forgot to check voltage before starting, but after playing, pack was a bit over 37v. Again when I put the cart on the charger, very little needle movement. Maybe it's OK, but just in case it's not, I'm going to start another thread asking about troubleshooting chargers.

Also, I noticed when checking the pack voltage after playing that the battery compartment was warmish. Not hot, and probably wouldn't have really noticed much but it was a cool evening. The warmth seems to be coming from the motor, which again was not hot. I could easily leave my hand in contact with the motor casing, but it was certainly much warmer than ambient. I'm assuming this is normal, but would like to know for sure. This motor is likely 35+ years old and I'm not really sure what I should be looking for in the way of abnormalities or how to test it's performance other than driving it around. Any advice about more definitely assessing the motor's condition would be greatly appreciated. I'm not adverse to having it rewound or even dropping the cash to get a replacement if I knew for sure it would make a significant improvement.

10-28-2010, 10:16 PM	#5
RGrove Not Yet Wild Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Arkansas Posts: 12	Re: Electric Golf Cart "running out of gas" Thanks gornoman and scottyb for the input and advice. It seems my charger was indeed bad. Here's the current situation with my old Cushman. Before putting the cart on a friend's charger, I checked batteries for water level and connections for corrosion. Didn't find anything other than a couple of cells being slightly low on water, which I replenished. All connections were corrosion free. After charging on friend's charger, all batteries were 6.5v except one that was 6.4v, total across pack was 38.9v. I drove the cart around the first 9 holes and it seemed like it was running like it used to before the recent problems started. No speed demon, especially up a grade, but certainly good enough to get me around and play golf. After that excursion, the pack was down to 38.4v. I had an old spare charger that I put it on, but I'm concerned that charger is not working properly either, as the ammeter needle didn't move much when I plugged it in. Played about 15 holes today and cart seemed good. Forgot to check voltage before starting, but after playing, pack was a bit over 37v. Again when I put the cart on the charger, very little needle movement. Maybe it's OK, but just in case it's not, I'm going to start another thread asking about troubleshooting chargers. Also, I noticed when checking the pack voltage after playing that the battery compartment was warmish. Not hot, and probably wouldn't have really noticed much but it was a cool evening. The warmth seems to be coming from the motor, which again was not hot. I could easily leave my hand in contact with the motor casing, but it was certainly much warmer than ambient. I'm assuming this is normal, but would like to know for sure. This motor is likely 35+ years old and I'm not really sure what I should be looking for in the way of abnormalities or how to test it's performance other than driving it around. Any advice about more definitely assessing the motor's condition would be greatly appreciated. I'm not adverse to having it rewound or even dropping the cash to get a replacement if I knew for sure it would make a significant improvement.