Lestronic 2 charger issues and questions

[redman34]

Hopeing someone can educate on electric cart charger.

I am working on a customers cart batteries, so I brought his cart back to my place to work on the batteries. I also brought his charger, to make sure it is charging his batteries.

Don't know if this matters, but the cart is a 36 volt yamaha, and the charger is a Lestronic 2.

The charger will not shut off. When i plug it in and hook it to the cart, thr needle starts around 20, then will make its way to eventually around 3, but NEVER down to zero, and will never shut off by itself.

On the top of the charger, it says that the charger will shut off when the batteries are fully charged. I left this thing plugged in for about 20 hours, and still buzzing away aaround the 3 mark.

Is there something wrong here? Why won't it get to zero and shut off?

Also the extremely loud buzzing that this cart makes is terrible. WAY louder than any charger I have heard.

I want to make sure this charger is working properly before i go to all the time and trouble of reconditioning his batteries.

Here is some additional info :

Cart has six 6 volt Sams club energizer batteries. 4 of the batteries are 2 years old, but are in decent enough shape that I can recondition and desulphate them. He had to buy 2 new batteries, in order to make the cart run, because 2 of his existing batteries had voltage of less than 6 volts, and wouldn't make it out of his driveway.

After I put HIS charger on the cart for 10 hours, I finally unplugged it. Once I unplugged it, I checked the voltage immediately and it read 41.2 volts.

I let it sit all nite and checked voltage in the morning. It is 39.0 volts.

I am looking for any help about this guys charger.

ONE MORE question, can I remove the cord cap on the end of a charger cabel ( the cap that plugs into a cart), and replace that with large clamps, so in essence I am making it a "universal" charger?. Then clamp directly onto the battery cables? Any reason ( other than me clamping on to wrong cables ), not to do this?

Thanks guys.

[gaminde]

Yes you are correct the charger should shut off, open the charger up make sure nothing has been bypassed. Next step would be to purchase a new control board for the charger.
Measure all batteries individually Another bad battery could cause a charger to stay on.

[gaminde]

Also 41 volts is low I would think there are other batteries that are bad, I would do a load test. As far as clamps go no problem but mark them well so there is no confusion on hook up. Bad humming noise is a transformer Getting old and loose.

[redman34]

All six batteries are fairly good. I did a load test, the entire pack will go 93 minutes.

All charge up to 100 %. But I left this LOUD charger on for 20 hours, and it will not shut off. It charges the batteries, but it will cook them if i don't manually pull the plug.

So i WAnt to troubleshoot this charger. Where do I start? What do I check and in what order?

[gaminde]

send pictures of the insides so I know what I'm talking about. or is it like the ones andy just posted on another thread

[gaminde]

we started some trouble shooting on one here is this what your working on.

http://www.golfcartsforum.com/club-car-electric/2274-another-charger.html

[andy4639]

If the batteries will go down to 3 amps but not shut the charger off I'd say one of the batteries is bad. What kind of voltage does each battery have while charging? If one is bad then the other ones will try to absorb the charge and they will read higher than the ones that can't.

Older the charger the louder they will get. The buzzing is nothing to worry about. You can try putting cardboard under the transformer to make it quiter.

[dougmcp]

As chargers get older the shellac insulation tends to break down and the windings vibrate causing the loud hum. This is normal and won't hurt anything.

A 36v charger will not shut off until it reaches to between 2.4v and 2.6v per cell which is 43.2v to 46.8v.

The charger should eventually shut off and if it never shuts off, the timer board is suspect.

Here is the Lester troubleshooting guide for that charger:

[redman34]

Andy : While charging, 5 of the batteries are at 6.5 volts and one battery is at 6.6 volts.

In the pack of 6 batteries, 2 are new energizers and 4 are older 1-2 year old energizers.

I did a load test, and the run time is 93 minutes for the 36 volt pack. I used the large Lester 36 volt discharge unit.

So with this info, what do you think?

Doug : Thanks so much for that troubleshooting guide. I am looking for any troubleshooting info I can get for cart chargers.

Also am still hoping someone can tell me where to buy charger parts.

This old Lestronic 2 still only goes to 3 amps, but doesn't shut off. The longest I have left it on, is about 12 hours, I am afraid to let it run any longer. I don't want to cook my batteries.

Would you leave it running longer than this?

[redman34]

Gaminde : Yes that is the same type of charger that I am talking about.

If I can find a used 36 volt charger, regardless what cable end is on it, can I just take the charger cord off it, and replace it with the old charger cable that fits my cart? Does it matter, as long as the charger is 36 volt, will any charger do ( as long as it has the correct configuration for the cart receptcle?

[dougmcp]

Andy : While charging, 5 of the batteries are at 6.5 volts and one battery is at 6.6 volts.

In the pack of 6 batteries, 2 are new energizers and 4 are older 1-2 year old energizers.

I did a load test, and the run time is 93 minutes for the 36 volt pack. I used the large Lester 36 volt discharge unit.

So with this info, what do you think?

Doug : Thanks so much for that troubleshooting guide. I am looking for any troubleshooting info I can get for cart chargers.

Also am still hoping someone can tell me where to buy charger parts.

This old Lestronic 2 still only goes to 3 amps, but doesn't shut off. The longest I have left it on, is about 12 hours, I am afraid to let it run any longer. I don't want to cook my batteries.

Would you leave it running longer than this?

When the charger first starts it should charge in the 20amp range the battery voltages will be about 6.3v-6.5v.
It will cut itself cut itself back to about 10a then 3a-5a and the voltage will start to rise.
While the charger is running and near the end of the charge cycle each battery should be between 7.2v and 7.5v, if it's not coming up that high the batteries are likely sulfated a little and need to be charged longer.
Let the charger run overnight 16-18 hours won't hurt anything.
There is likely nothing wrong with the charger timer, the voltage isn't high enough to shut itself off. A 36v cart charger needs to be around 45v before it will stop charging.

[dougmcp]

If I can find a used 36 volt charger, regardless what cable end is on it, can I just take the charger cord off it, and replace it with the old charger cable that fits my cart? Does it matter, as long as the charger is 36 volt, will any charger do ( as long as it has the correct configuration for the cart receptcle?

Any 36v charger for deep cycle batteries will work.
Golf carts, fork lifts and floor scrubbers all use these type of chargers.

I thought you had a 36v Ezgo cart, why not try your charger on it to confirm all is working.

[redman34]

I do have a 36 volt EZGO. I let the guy use my cart and charger as a loaner, while i took his cart and charger to try and recondition the batteries. I was able to knock the resistance down in batteries from 24-30 ohms down to 7-12 ohms with my high dollar unit. So I am trying his charger on his reconditioned batteries. So that is why I am wondering if his charger is good or not.

thanks for the advice and info.

How about some parts sources for charger parts?

[gaminde]

load test personally I would rather see your load test on each battery not the pack what we are looking 4 is individually bad batteries not hiding them in the pack. My website has some club car charger parts listed. I do not have access to a lot of different chargers or else I could cross reference the parts. Lots of control boards are OEM And they are not going to sell them cheap. Doug has posted about a 5 stage charger I looked up a replacement board for that charger and I found it retail for 120 dollars it is possible that board could be adapted to a number of different chargers.
you do not want to replace transformers
diode you can get anywhere
relay can be adapted to chargers
control boards are OEM And can be spendy
What we need to do is find Good quality control boards that can be adapted to Chargers Of different makes.

[redman34]

If I want to load test the batteries, individually, do i need to unwire them? Or can I leave them all hooked together and just hook up the load tester t o each battery as they are wired together?

Do i need to unhook any accessory wiring?

[gaminde]

No unhooking necessary