Club Car Starts To Move In Forward and Quits Reverse is Fine

[DickO]

Quick intro... Purchased a used 1996 Club Car, 48 volt, about five or six years ago and have kept it around mainly for yard work, for grand kids to play with, and other mundane reasons. Mostly though, it just sits in my work shed. I'm familiar with general mechanics and minor electrical systems but don't like to put my fingers into systems I'm not familiar with. I am not familiar with golf cart systems and how they work. Therefore, I'm in need of some help now.

Recently drove my cart out to the front yard to pick up some hedge balls. The cart "seemed" to be a bit slow as if needing a recharge. Once I had it loaded, I tried to go up forward on a slight incline but the cart would only "start" to move and then quit (repeated several times). When I put it in reverse, it was able to move very well over to another tree area. After finishing there, I tried the forward function again and got the same quitting action.

So, I hit the reverse switch and backed all the way back into my shed (about 60 yards) and without the "slowness" I had experienced going forward. Once there, I checked the batteries for charge with a voltmeter
and found (after isolating the battery pack) that each battery was at 8.1 or 8.2 volts with the whole pack at 49.2 volts. I didn't measure each battery separately. Anyway, am I looking at an obvious reverse switch problem or what is a more likely problem?? Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[gornoman]

You need to load test each battery under the same load. This can be done with alligator clip test leads and your digital multimeter. Drive up the same incline each time. I bet you will find 1 or 2 batteries dropping voltage much worse than the others.

 

[DickO]

Thanks, "gornoman". Tried your "load" test and all of the batteries fell off quite a bit. Everything from 2.70 thru 5.83 readings (had to read fast because there was a lot of fluctuation). Still, was able to coax the unit back to the shed where I finally took individual battery readings. They were all between 8.03 and 8.15. So, I've got it on the charger now to see how that affects this story. Doesn't seem like it's been that long since the last time I charged it. The batteries are quite old so maybe they're getting due for change now... Is there a market for "used" batteries anywhere?? Thanks again.

 

[golfcar2000]

Most places will require your old batteries for a core, or charge you a core charge on each battery and that can add a considerable amount to the price.

 

[Diode]

If the car will only go in reverse that load test may not tell you anything, in reverse only half of the batteries are being used so there will be three others that are only used for forward along with the three for reverse it’s probably the forward three but I would certainly try the F and R switch next