1988 36V charging issue

[HIGHPSI4]

I just picked up a 1988 36v cart. It has a new motor but used batteries. When I got it, one of the battery wires was loose and the owner had tightened it and broke off the battery bolt post. There was a small amount of lead from the post where it got hot. I figured it killed that battery so I bought a good used one for the replacement. Yesterday I finished cleaning and greasing all connections and replacing some cables. When I charged the batteries the charger kicked off after 15 min. The cart moved for 45 seconds. Second charge went 15 min and drive time of 30 seconds. Third charge started at 2PM yesterday @ 18 amps. It kept charging this time. By 9PM the charger was down to 10 amps and the batteries were gassing. I left it on over night. At 8 AM today it was charging @ 9 amps and still gassing. I felt that I was just cooking them at that time so I pulled the plug. Are the batteries dead and just won't take a charge?

Thanks in advance for any help.

David

[shadowman]

start by checking voltage in each battery and write voltage #,s down, clean and tighten all battery connections you want them as like new as you can get..........load test each battery write #,s down.....make sure they have water in them ( distilled water only ) approx 1/8 inch over plates clean as good as you can connections where charge plug goes into charge receptical of cart both plug ins as clean as you can............if your not sure about any cables replace them and another thing if you only need a 10 inch long cable don,t put a 30 inch long cable on to replace it..................after you get all that squared away then try charger to see how long it charges for........also if you can try your charger on another cart do that............depending on how well batteries were maintained they could be shot or just one or two of them it all depends..............sounds like you have either bad batts or dirty loose connections somewhere or a cable on wrong so we want to eliminte as much as we can there........lastly what brand of battery and how old are they there should be a date code stamped into the lead around neg. post of each one like B-07 which would be february 2007.................post your voltage #,s we,ll be able to tell somthing just by the voltage#,s........................................ .......

[Andy4639]

From what you say I would guess yes they are, but lets do some tests first.
Look at the - side battery posts and see what numbers & letter is stamp into them. Example = A8 would = January 2008 if the batteries look really old then it could be Jan 1998.
Charge the cart up. Let it sit for about 30 minutes without doing anything with it. Take a digital voltmeter and see what the batteries numbers read. You should get 6. something on each one hopefully it will read 6.4 or better.
If the batteries are old and you put a brand new battery in with them you are burning up the new battery.
Post your battery numbers after you check them.

[pggroves]

Check the specific gravity of each cell after a charge and one hour of settling. It will tell you all!