Replacing Charger Receptacle 1995 CC 48v

[txsviking]

Have had occasional problems with getting cart charged over the past 2 years. Recently it stopped charging. Thought it might be the charger so I tried a friend's 48v charger (same PowerDrive model 17930). Again it would click on and charge for 2-3 mins. at 15 amps then the breaker on the charger would trip. Same as my charger & it happened repeatedly. Had to jiggle the connector some times to get it to charge over the past 2 years. The battery indicator light also did not work so I was always wondering how much charge I had. Put in new batteries and new 6ga cables a bit over a year ago. The cart ran pretty good aside from some times it felt like it was not getting a full charge or sluggish on hills. Seemed like poor connection at the charging receptacle so I just got a new one this week. Weather is cold and crummy, so a good time to get some work done. Replacement went fine but I found a couple of problems as I took out the old one. 1. The grey wire to the OBC had no fuse at/near the receptacle and it had been shoved in the receptacle and some black, puttylike stuff was used to hold it in place. 2. The big fuse on the receptacle was blown and the previous owner just took the wire off the fuse post and bypassed the fuse by putting the terminal on the hot lead next to it. I have carefully followed the Lester Electronics instruction sheet that came with receptacle and all seems in order and have everything ready to go and connect to battery pack & charge. My question is--- Did the blown fuse and lack of one on the wire to the OBC indicate that there are other electrical problems? I don't want to fry my OBC or charger just because I'm in a hurry to try it out. Should I be wary of the battery charge indicator light not working? I'll probably get a new one soon or is a meter a better choice. Also - Would putting on new 4ga cables lead to any faster charging times or any other improvements in performance/durability?

[txsviking]

Buttoned it all up.. Had to use my car charger to manually charge batteries individually enough so OBC and charger would have enough juice for PowerDrive charger to operate. Had batteries at 7v+ and charger worked ok and no fuses blown. Will see how it charges now and in the weeks to follow. Want to see how it works after a couple of cycles. Any suggestions on keeping track during use of battery pack level- meter or a new indicator light bar?

[txsviking]

Well I got up this am and put a meter on the batteries after the charger kicked off last night. Not good. Five of six batteries(Interstate deep cycle/2 yrs old) were around 4v. One was at 7.4v. Charger would not click on and provide juice. System/pack voltage was 27.5v.. Obviously too low for OBC and charger to work. Any ideas/advice?