Golf Cart Battery Charger Repair

[easysurfer]

My friend has a used golf cart and battery charger. I noticed, on the charger one of the wires is detached. The charger has a meter. When I plug it in to recharge the meter's needle doesn't move.

There are two wires. One black, one white. The black one is detached. Is it possible that with only the white one attached, the charger still recharges the cart, but just the needle on the meter doesn't work? Or would the charger not work at all.

Also, is it safe to try and fix on my own to take apart the housing and look for where to make the loose connection? Or in a battery charger, are there things like capacitors which mean warning, warning, warning....thx

 

[travelover]

Generally a battery charger is just a transformer with a set of diodes to make DC. Fancier ones have some circuitry. If you unplug it first, you should be OK.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

My friend has a used golf cart and battery charger. I noticed, on the charger one of the wires is detached. The charger has a meter. When I plug it in to recharge the meter's needle doesn't move.

There are two wires. One black, one white. The black one is detached. Is it possible that with only the white one attached, the charger still recharges the cart, but just the needle on the meter doesn't work? Or would the charger not work at all.

Also, is it safe to try and fix on my own to take apart the housing and look for where to make the loose connection? Or in a battery charger, are there things like capacitors which mean warning, warning, warning....thx

Unless you have electrician capabilities, I wouldn't mess with it. I have the same problem and am scheduled to take my cart in tomorrow to have the dealer look at it. I just bought a new set of batteries in January, the charger was working and then just the other day it quit. Mine is a 48 volt system and the batteries were about $700. I'm not taking any chances on the charger. They fixed it last year and it appears to be the same problem. Let you know what I find out. If you can repair the detached wire, it may solve your problem.

 

[ERD50]

There are two wires. One black, one white. The black one is detached. Is it possible that with only the white one attached, the charger still recharges the cart, but just the needle on the meter doesn't work? Or would the charger not work at all.

Also, is it safe to try and fix on my own to take apart the housing and look for where to make the loose connection? Or in a battery charger, are there things like capacitors which mean warning, warning, warning....thx

If you unplug it first, you should be OK.

I'm going to disagree. True, if it is unplugged while working on it, you should not be in danger of a shock. But what about after it is put together and plugged in?

easysurfer - please don't take the next lines as condescending, it's just that safety comes first, and you need to have some basic knowledge and background in this area to have confidence that the repair will be safe when completed. An unsafe repair could put yourself and/or others at risk. Your post tells me that you don't have the background to assure the repair is done safely. There is more to this than connecting the wire and seeing the needle move. It also needs to be grounded properly (which could mean it needs to be isolated from ground properly).

I agree with JOHNNIE36 'Unless you have electrician capabilities, I wouldn't mess with it.'

I've seen some really dangerous repairs that worked fine - until something happened that depended on the safety features that were inadvertently altered.

-ERD50

 

[FreeAtLast]

There is more to this than connecting the wire and seeing the needle move. It also needs to be grounded properly (which could mean it needs to be isolated from ground properly).


-ERD50

I don't have experience with golf carts, however, I did have a disaster with a very large 240v 3phase UPS in a data center. Everything that was connected to the 110 output in the room was fried. Smoke everywhere.
It was traced back to the electrician not tying down a ground wire properly.

 

[easysurfer]

Unless you have electrician capabilities, I wouldn't mess with it. I have the same problem and am scheduled to take my cart in tomorrow to have the dealer look at it. I just bought a new set of batteries in January, the charger was working and then just the other day it quit. Mine is a 48 volt system and the batteries were about $700. I'm not taking any chances on the charger. They fixed it last year and it appears to be the same problem. Let you know what I find out. If you can repair the detached wire, it may solve your problem.

Good enough for me. I'm not going to fool with it myself. Better safe than sorry.

Thanks for the replies.