1996 ezgo golf cart starts but won’t always turns over

[Brat14406]

You I just bought a 1996 ezgo golf cart with an engine and the seller said it needed a tunup and the carburetor needed to be cleaned. Before I did any of that I drove the golf cart for a few days and it seemed to drive fine. The engine got hot and smoked a little. Went ahead and changed the oil (which was extremely dirty), fuel filter, installed a new carburetor , spark plugs. After doing this the golf cart would turn over but not start. Thought maybe it was the fuel pump but that did not work. So I pulled the spark plugs and they had gas on them. Cleaned off the spark plugs and reinstalled them. The cart ran a few days and then stopped and would only turn over but not start. Pulled the spark plugs and reinstalled them and it drove for a few more days and then quits and the engine again will run but not turn over.

[golfcartg]

Congrats on your new purchase! If you still have the old carburetor, and it happens to be original, I would take it to a lawn mower shop and have them deep clean it for you. You could clean it yourself, but a shop might have a machine they can run it through to sonic clean it. Anyway, those aftermarket carburetors are touchy and some cant be tuned properly, which is why I always buy OEM if available (Ezgo may still carry oem carburetors for these). Replace the carburetor gaskets with brand new gaskets, especially between the carb and the engine. Make sure the rest of the intake is sealed tight. Your issue is probably within the carburetor tuning, possible missing or broken gaskets, you might have to dump the old gas and replace it if its stale. Make sure the arrow on the fuel filter is pointing in the correct direction, and make sure the choke is fully functional.