1995 Club Car DS Won't Move

[Sergio]

Originally Posted by J5szatkowski

No reading at all when connecting the voltmeter between the orange and blue swivel posts when in neutral.

Was the Multimeter set to a low scale resistance or continuity?

If so, please follow the cables to make sure they do go to Motor S1 and S2 posts.

[J5szatkowski]

I just redid the test, making sure that the reading was done on "resistance." This time the reading was 0.01. When I removed the voltmeter it would settle on 0.00 so it was definitely picking up a small reading.

The cables are indeed running directly to the motor.

[Sergio]

Go ahead and test the resistance on the motor posts.

[J5szatkowski]

Resistance=

red lead on a2 black lead on a1 = 1.5

red lead on s2 black lead on s1 =.7

No reading from any posts to frame.

[Sergio]

Hopefully You also have no resistance between A1 and S1 (or A2 and S2).

I am trying to interpret your readings in a favorable manner, but they are inconsistent.

If the resistance right at motor S1 and S2 is around 0.7Ω, it cannot be 70 times smaller at the end of the cables connected there, when You measured from the FNR (0.01Ω).

If You multi-meter has selectable scales, you should use the smallest scale that will hold the value.

For DC voltage, use 20v when measuring single batteries or 200v when measuring pack voltages.

For Resistance, use 200Ω when measuring low resistances/continuity or 20kΩ when measuring the VGlide.

Also when measuring resistance, notice how your meter indicates an Open Line or infinite resistance (probes not touching each other), I have never seen it show "0.00", it is usually 0L or the meter "overflow" reading like "1.".

The only thing I can think of it is perhaps the "plug in brake diode" in the controller has failed and it is placing pack voltage at the A2 terminal.

Disconnect the 2 white cables from the Controller A2 terminal, use the bolt and nut to connect the 2 cables together, but do not connect them to the Controller A2 terminal.

Insulate the connection and try to run the cart.

Make sure one of the rear wheels (or both) are not touching the ground.

[J5szatkowski]

Hey Sergio....it's been a while. I finally got around to trying what you recommended months ago and disconnecting the electric brake diode and directly connecting the two white wires off of the controller worked! The cart now moves. Is it safe to leave these connected, insulated, and use the cart as is? Thanks again!

[Sergio]

That is good news.

Ideally You would use a single cable, but as long as you have a clean and tight surface-to-surface connection between those two cable lugs, just insulate them and it should perform well.

[J5szatkowski]

Sergio, thank you again for your help.

So I connected the two white cables directly, bypassing the OBC. The cart runs but struggles and slows to a crawl when going up any type of hill. It runs pretty good on flat pavement.

Is it possible that the OBC isn't allowing full power to get to the motor? Should I consider bypassing it at this point?

The only other reason for it slowing down that I can think of is that I have an LED light bar wired to the first two batteries in the sequence so that it receives 12 volts....is it possible that this is causing the battery sequence to not deliver full power? I've only ever driven the cart with the light on so i'm not sure if it will have a power loss uphill with the light off.

The batteries are new and give a good reading when measured with my voltmeter. And the "wiper arm" on this model, appears to be clean and working properly.


Any thoughts or ideas you may have are greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Sergio]

Those 2 white cables bypassed the Controller (not OBC) plug brake circuit.

It could be the controller has more damage than just the plug brake circuit or those 2-batteries You are tapping for the lights are getting damaged.

It is not a good idea to tap individual batteries as it will create a imbalance during charge/discharge cycles.

Do a full charge, then wait 12 hours without driving the cart.

Set your meter to 20vDC in order to get 2 decimal places of precision and measure each individual battery.

Start with the pack positive battery (battery #1) and post the results.

[J5szatkowski]

Tested each battery, results are as follows:

6.32
6.32
6.31
6.32
6.31
6.32

I'm beginning to think that more could be wrong with the controller, is it possible to bypass the controller, or is there something else you would recommend?