2000 E825 2 seater wont move!

GEM Forum
1

Hello all and TIA for any help or advice.

I bought a 2000 E825 2 seater from a gal and she claimed it only needed new batteries as it had been sitting in her garage for the last two years not being used.

I put new lead acid batteries in the cart, they charged from the on board charger without issue but I had no power to the cart. I called ride-4-fun and they explained that my dc-dc converter must be bad. So I ordered a new one. It arrived and I put it in the cart and still had no luck with getting the cart to move or power up.

So here is what I have going as of now. I have good voltage from the batteries to the cart. I have all of my 12v accessories working, such as horn, headlights etc.. but no gauge cluster, fwd/rev or pedal. The cart has the black fin dc-dc converter ( the part I replaced from ride-4-fun that I found out I didn’t need to as my old one still works) a T2 controller and the Schott charger ( I know it is junk and is on the top of the list to replace as well, but it’s working as of now). Stock motor.

I have ohm’d and check nearly everything on the cart and have power where I should and as much as I should. I’ve tested the key switch and it works, I tried the charger interlock over ride jumper, I’ve tested the fuse panel, converter and about everything else I can think of, but I still have no gauge or drive power. It was suggested to me that the 4 wire 12v relay may be bad by a gentlemen I met on facebook through one of the GEM groups that has been quite helpful. That part shows up tomorrow and I hope helps, but it seems that I have power on either side of the relay as well.

I see in here that there have been similar issues with other GEM owners, however a solution has not been posted that I can find, so I would gladly take any recommendations or advice as I am stumped at this moment.

I’m positive I have forgot something that I have tried, so feel free to ask any questions that may help diagnose my issue. (Yes the master switch is on :slight_smile: )

Thank you.

2

Be careful of those that like to sell you parts without doing real diagnostics. As you found out, they are simply guessing.
Shotgunning parts at these things until it works can get expensive. At least you might end up with a bunch of spare parts you can use on your next cart.

The first thing you should look for is the power-up sign of life.
From cold boot, (car fully powered down for 60/more seconds)
MainBattSwitch to ON → Watch the dash display.
The dash display should light up for 5 seconds, show a couple of insignificant numbers, then go dark.
Verify it does this(Y/N?)

This is the controller warming up, Pre-charging the caps, then going into stand-by.

Return with your results and further instructions.

3

While I was waiting for this post to be approved, I kept reading in the forums. I found a post that suggested jumping the grey and white wire across the relay and that would confirm if the relay was bad. Sure enough that was the issue. At least at first glance. I have only had a chance to move the cart about 10 feet forward and back. When I get off work I plan to take it out of my shop and go for a legit test drive. But I am all but certain that relay was the cause of my issue.

4

Ah, You found the value of the archives.
Yep- they are like gold for the new guys that wander in here and having issues. Chances are that someone else has had that same problem.

5

Ya for sure. Unfortunately, even though I dug for quite awhile looking, it wasn’t until after I made a post that I found the info buried in another conversation. The main post I found that related to my issue specifically, never posted a solution. Just happy to have some life in my GEM car now.

6

Tip if you live on a hill, do your testing going up.
Otherwise, until you are really sure all the bugs are worked out, do small laps. Only go as far as you want to push it back.

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