October 1, 2021 - Golf Cart Project

My friend, John, gave me a 1971 Melek Golf Cart. That's right,  it is fifty years old. Here is a picture after I squirted him off to remove the barn debris. I jacked him up to make him easier to work on. 

His batteries are weak but the first problem I had to address was that his batteries were literally falling out. The metal supports that hold the batteries in place were rusted away from years of battery acid leaking on them. Here is a picture of the batteries before I started.

You can see some batteries are falling down and there is a board between them to keep them from shifting around.  The metal straps they sit on and one of the side rails had completely rusted away. 

My first order of business was to number the batteries so I could mark all the cables before I removed them. I am not good at remembering such things. Here is a picture of the numbered batteries.

I labeled each cable with masking tape before I disconnected it so I knew which cable went where. Once the batteries were removed the rebuild project began.  I worked on one side at a time. On the passenger side I had to add a piece of angle iron to hold the middle two batteries from sliding sideways. In the picture below it is marked with a red arrow at each end. I also had to weld a piece of angle iron to hold the bottom strap for the two center batteries. That piece is marked with a yellow arrow. 

I also had to weld a piece to hold the single battery on that side in place. The new bracket is next to the yellow arrow and is also welded underneath to what is left of the old metal strap .

You can see I am not a very good welder. Additionally it is a pain to try and weld to thin rusty metal. I did the best I could and all seems to be holding.  

On the driver side the metal wasn't rusted quite so badly. The green arrow points to a "u" shaped bracket I made to hold the single battery in place. The yellow arrow points to a second bracket I had to add to support a brake cable connection below.

After all the welding was completed and the new steel painted I put the batteries back in and took him for a test ride. He is really slow because at least two batteries are not holding a very good charge. In any event he ran and the batteries remained secured. I quickly found though that the brake didn't work. I had Kelly step on the brake pedal while I looked underneath to see how the brake operated. The brake is a band that tightens around a drum at the back of the motor. The cable from the pedal was floppy loose so pushing the pedal all the way to the floor did not even move the brake. The brake is adjusted by a turnbuckle. In no time I managed to break off the eye bolt on one end of the adjusting turnbuckle. This meant I had to get it off the cart and drill it out. Luckily the other end of the turnbuckle turned freely and I was able to take it out and put it in the vise for drilling. Here is the turnbuckle in the vise with the broken bolt in it. Luckily with just a little drilling the bolt came out quite easily. 

I was also lucky that since the cable was so loose there was enough of the eye bolt threads remaining to thread into the turnbuckle without having to take the cable apart and install a new eye bolt. Here is a picture of the turnbuckle back in place. You can see the threads on the eye bolt on the right.

I can now lock up the brakes and leave skid marks. Mission accomplished.

As a final effort to get this cart in shape I'm in the process of trying to rejuvenate the two low voltage batteries. John gave me some "battery magic" fluid he had bought some time back that is supposed to bring old batteries back to life. The procedure (if it works) takes several days with the battery on a slow charge. I'll keep you posted.