Buggies Gone Wild Golf Cart Forum - View Single Post

mb523 · 09-30-2007, 07:11 PM

Battery died today in the middle of a parade. Was going very slow and starting and stopping a lot, my guess was it wasn't charging very well at the slow speed. Got it home, charged it, and tested the charging system... jacked rear up and ran engine. Seemed OK, overcharging a little (spiked to 15V a few times. Took it for a drive with meter on terminals and got the WEIRDEST readings. Driving normally yielded a pretty normal charging voltage (aprox. 14V), but when I slowed down to a crawl (speed at parade), I got a -1.000 reading on my multimeter display. It also flashed a whole bunch of numbers between the negative #. I have NO IDEA what is wrong here! Stopped, it was normal battery voltage. Reverse also caused the meter to read negative.

What is going on here!?! I am planning on changing the OLD SCHOOL mechanical voltage regulator with a solid state 80's model regulator. I found some instructions on another forum on how to do it. I will check with author for permission to copy them here, they are very good directions.

ANY light on this problem would be GREAT!! Thanks!

09-30-2007, 07:11 PM	#1
mb523 Peanut Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Western Massachusetts Posts: 656	Weird charging symptoms solved! Battery died today in the middle of a parade. Was going very slow and starting and stopping a lot, my guess was it wasn't charging very well at the slow speed. Got it home, charged it, and tested the charging system... jacked rear up and ran engine. Seemed OK, overcharging a little (spiked to 15V a few times. Took it for a drive with meter on terminals and got the WEIRDEST readings. Driving normally yielded a pretty normal charging voltage (aprox. 14V), but when I slowed down to a crawl (speed at parade), I got a -1.000 reading on my multimeter display. It also flashed a whole bunch of numbers between the negative #. I have NO IDEA what is wrong here! Stopped, it was normal battery voltage. Reverse also caused the meter to read negative. What is going on here!?! I am planning on changing the OLD SCHOOL mechanical voltage regulator with a solid state 80's model regulator. I found some instructions on another forum on how to do it. I will check with author for permission to copy them here, they are very good directions. ANY light on this problem would be GREAT!! Thanks! Last edited by mb523; 10-13-2007 at 04:52 PM.. Reason: trying to change title..