86 DS Not Charging

[okphil]

I plugged the cart in after running it about two miles. The charger jumped to 20 amps for a few minutes then to zero. It looks like the charging fuse wire over the recepticle in the cart melted the plastic lens and is probably burned out. It was late so I haven't taken it out yet. What would cause the fuse to burn out? Loose wires? Bad charger? Most of the wiring is new 10 ga, new fuse, new recepticle, etc. but the charger is an old, old Lester timer model. Thanks.

[Retired Troop]

It sounds as if you and I are having the same type of issues on my 86 club car ds 36volt cart.I am hoping yours is the same model.
I thought my charger was bad because when I plugged it up, I had arcing at the passenger fuse side wire attachment to the passenger side wire connection to the switch became extremely hot (I found it to be slightly loose, just slightly so maybe the cause of the arc). I also saw on the other side of the fuse that there was a larger wire than on the right. I have not found out if this could cause issues. But the most puzzling issue when I plugged the charger is that I checked the charging voltage and it was throwing 43 volts. You might want to check what your charger voltage. I had my charger checked by a shop, and it was working correctly putting out 37 volts, so I am thinking my switch and fuse area may be wired incorrectly, but I cannot find a blown up schematic nor proper wire size or color for the switch-fuse area (so I am watching your post closely to see if you also come up with something that I cannot find). My email is souptroopers@charter.net if I can help with what I found. The previous owner changed a lot of the old wiring, but I am thinking some of it may not have been put back together correctly. I would really like to find something to give correct wiring diagtam, wire color (to get back to factory), and correct wiring size.
Sorry I can't give you much help but my post is the one that is "I am throwing everything at once for the kids golf cart". If it might help with what I have had with my issues.
Thanks

[Keith]

If I rember correctly, that fuse you are describing is an 80 amp charging circuit protection fuse. It's designed to protect the charging circuit from over current loads. If that fuse is blowing you have got some serious kind of short circuiting going on. You said your ammeter on the charger showed a load of 20 amps., then dropped to zero and stopped charging.
Do you have a 20 amp or 30 amp charger?
If the charger is suspect to be malfunctioning you could try the following to see if in fact the charger is faulty.
Charge all the batteries seperately and then check the voltage at the battery pack. You should see a meter reading of 36.20 VDC or higher for a fully charged battery pack.
Leave the cart sit for a couple of hours and then plug in your charger and watch the ammeter guage. If the charger is operating properly the ammeter will spike up to 20 amps but within seconds it should start to back down to around 8 to 10 amps. If doesn't reduce the aperage output there something wrong with either the charger, the battery cables, or the battery connections.

I hope this will help you out!

Keith

[okphil]

Thanks for your responses guys. I got up to the lake this weekend and checked it out. Charger is a 30 amp model. Charger was putting out about 43 volts so it was good. I pulled the charging fuse from the cart and it was blown with one side of the plastic holder totally melted. Couldn't find any loose connections. I did find that part of my wiring from the fuse was only 12 ga. I changed out the fuse and holder and all wiring to 10 ga. When I plugged in the charger all worked fine. At 20 amps on the charger gauge the connection at the fuse gets pretty hot. Too hot to touch but doesn't melt the plastic holder or blow the new fuse. Everything worked the couple of times I charged it this weekend so I hope I'm good.