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Club Car or golf cart
I have a 1990 club car cart with the Kawasaki 4 stroke. It starts and runs fine, it has just stopped recharging the battery. I get several weeks of running before I have to recharge the battery. I am not familiar with the electronics inside and was wondering what some possible things to check may be. I assume the starter is the alternator and it works fine for starting. Is there a component the commonly goes bad?
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Club Car or golf cart
Not generally, I would start with some basic diagnostics.
Check that you don't just have a bad connections somewhere that is limiting (or preventing) charging of the battery.
These things don't exactly have a 100 amp charge circuit, all it takes is a bad connection or two to stop all charging.
Best of luck.
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Club Car or golf cart
This is the first thing to have ever broken on the cart and I have owned it almost 10 years. Thank you Kawasaki and Club Car for something that runs like a Honda. That being said, I am completely unfamiliar with the charging circuit and how it relates to the starting circuit. Any insite on the function would be great.
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Club Car or golf cart
Do you have a starter / generator combination unit, a conventional starter and a magneto for charging?
They built them both ways over the years.
Best of luck
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Club Car or golf cart
It has what looks like a generator/alternator for a starter with a belt to the engine. Pedal start so you never let off the start position while running. That's why I guessed it was both.
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OK, yes that's right, a belt-driven starter is a sure sign it's also a generator.
Note I said 'generator' not alternator. It is a simple thing to do, any motor when spun will give you back some power when wired correctly.
You should have 3 wires coming off of it. A single wire at one terminal, and 2 on the other, the single wire is the "field" wire, we'll call 'F' here, and the other two are "armature" wires. We'll call them 'A1' & 'A2' here.
Now the way it works is, when you step on the pedal (or hit the key) you connect making a complete circuit in 'A1' between a 12volt battery and the motor and 'F' causing the motor to spin starting the engine. Once the starter solenoid is out of the circuit 'A1' (between motor & battery directly) once again becomes an open circuit, leaving only 'F' & 'A2' (which runs to the regulator) intact, and since the motor is still spinning (and now a generator) because it's belted to the engine, the battery should charge.
In your case though something went south. Check first that you have power between the two terminals of the starter / generator while the engine is running. I bet you will, they rarely go. Now check all connections to see if there is corrosion messing things up, a generator has a very feeble output, it doesn't take much. If everything is clean and making a solid contact, you need a new regulator.
If you have any problems, give a shout.
Best of luck.
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