maintenance on old car

[MDLNB]

1997 CC DS 48 volt.

I have been attempting to tweak a bit of speed from this old car, the poor man's way. So, since I have no idea what has been done in the past on this FREE cart (if you want to call free with purchase of home, free) so I decided to do a bit of maintenance on it. As I said in an earlier post, I had already pulled the rear brake drums to clean the brakes. I rinsed them with brake cleaner (two cans for the price of one) and then used sand paper on the shoes. One had a slick spot on it. One drum was scored so I found a new replacement for a nice price on ebay. I adjusted the brake distance and reassembled. I still get the occasional squeal, but I know they will stop me.

Day before yesterday, I decided to change the rear end oil. I should have run the cart for a while to warm up the oil, but forgot to. Using an old scratched teflon frying pan that my wife threw away, to collect the old oil, I removed the lower plug to drain the oil. Once it was down to a drip, I jacked up the right side and got a few more drops. I measured a little over 20 oz and it was black. I had also loosened the fill plug in case it needed a bit air. Since the Ace Hardware sells AMSOIL I decided to try their synthetic, but they didn't have any 30W. So, I had a choice between 10w30 or 20w50 and decided to go with the 20w50 since it gets pretty warm here in Florida. Hope I chose well. Using a plastic funnel, a long clear hose and a clamp, I made a filler tube. With the assistance of my wife's neices husban, I had him hold the funnel and fill it, while I held the tube in the fill hole of the rear end. Yes, I did remember to replace the drain plug. Once the oil started to overflow out of the hole (I left enough room for it to leak out between the tube and the hole) it was filled. I noticed that it filled enough to use up about 21-22oz of oil. I replaced the fill plug and gave it a ride around the hood. Seems a bit quieter, or it might be my wanting it to improve that made it seem so.

Yesterday, I pulled the wheels off the front end to replace the wheel bearing with new ones. The old ones appeared to be fine, but I had already purchased the new ones, so I went through the exercise of removing the old ones, packing the new ones and reassembling. When replacing the rear seals, I used a piece of wood on them, tapping it with a regular hammer. They seated easily. After putting the wheels back on, I took the cart for a test ride with my wife. When we slowed, I noticed a noise coming from the front left wheel. I jacked it up and discovered that the bearings must not have been seated properly when I tightened the castle nut. I had about two turns on the nut to tighten it, to take the play out wheel. I may have tightened it a bit more than necessary, but now I have NO wiggle play when I pull on the wheels. I did before I changed the bearings. While I had the wheels off, used the grease gun to pump some new grease in the five front grease fittings. I used some white molly lithium spray on any other moving joints in the front.

Next process on my poor man's tweak will be to replace the rear shackles with the longer ones that I purchased from Advance Auto. I have to raise the back slightly to put the new 22" knobbies on the rear. I picked up some offset 8" wheels for a decent price and the tires are ATV tires that I got at a bargain. It might be a bit loud when I finish, but I will be replacing bald rear tires and the larger ones should give me a 1 or 2mph increase on level ground. I still plan to replace the rear springs eventually, with HD replacements.

I also purchased some small six led running lights to see if I can improve the front visibility when driving at night. I don't want to blind anyone coming at me but my current stock lights are so poor that it makes traveling at night, very slow. I picked up these little lights for a song and dance so anything should be an improvement. They will be mounted on top of the front bumper.

I enjoy reading other folks experiences on here and have learned a bit about my cart since joining. You folks are great and I thank you.