Why Your Golf Cart Starter Generator is Not Charging

If your starter generator is not charging properly, it may be that the solenoid, voltage regulator or brushes are faulty. If you’ve ensured that all of these parts are working fine, the starter generator may not be drawing enough current to regenerate the battery.

• Step 1 – Check the Connections

Loose wirings or improper terminal connections are the most common reasons behind the starter generator not charging the battery.

To ensure the starter generator is working properly, you need to check for any loose connections and fix them.

Also, you should conduct a thorough check of the terminal connections of the starter generator with other parts.

For reference, you can use the connection diagram available in the instruction manual of your model. The green wire is the most important in the functioning of starter generator.

When the green wire gets shorted on its own, the field current starts flowing directly to the starter generator circuit, therefore recharging the battery.

• Step 2 –Short the Green Wire Manually

If you’ve checked all the wires and they’re connected as intended, then it is time to manually short the green wire to ground. This is done to conduct the full field test. The full field test determines if the starter generator is working fine in terms of the voltage generated at the battery terminal.

• Step 3 –Apply Full-Field Current

After shorting the green wire to ground, you need to apply full-field current to shoot up the battery voltage to 15-16 volts.

You have to ensure that the full field current is applied only for the time taken to record the full-field voltage because the high voltage is enough to damage the battery.

If the voltage is 15 or 16 volts, the problem is with the voltage regulator. If not, the starter generator is faulty.

How to Fix a Golf Cart Starter That is Not Charging

The starter generator setup in a golf cart involves the solenoid, brushes and the voltage regulator. If the engine is turning on but the battery is not getting charged, the brushes can be removed from the suspects’ list as they’re doing their job as intended.

If the brushes can turn the engine over, they’ll have no problem charging the battery as well. Here is a step-wise check on each component that can be done to fix the issue of the starter generator not charging.

Materials Required

Not all of the materials listed below will be required to fix the issue. However, it would be better to have these handy as at least one of them will be required if the starter generator isn’t charging the battery as intended.

• New Wires
• Solenoid
• Voltage Regulator

Steps to Fix Starter Generator Not Charging Issue

1. Check and Replace Broken Wires

Wires are the first thing to check for in the case of an starter generator failure. Any loose or damaged wire is enough to prevent the cart from working completely.

To ensure the starter generator is charging the battery as intended, check all the terminal connections. If there are any damaged or loose wiring, replace them immediately.

2. Check Solenoid

The solenoid is expected to remain energized at all times. If it is not energized at any point in time, the return path for the starter generator to charge the battery via the voltage regulator won’t be completed.

A simple voltmeter or a multimeter set at voltage reading should be enough to identify a faulty solenoid.

3. Check Voltage Regulator

As indicated in the earlier section, conduct a full field test to see if the problem is with the voltage regulator or the starter generator itself.

If the starter generator is showing 15 to 16 volts during the full field test, replace the voltage regulator.