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Club Car - Fixing It Up

King295

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I've been using my Yamaha Rhino as a golf cart for years but it was time to take the party stealth and pick up an electric cart. Found a fairly customized 1992 Club Car DS 36 volt electric cart on Offerup that had its fair share of issues but the price was right so here we go....

Step 1 - Buy it, toss it in the bed of the truck and take it home

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Next order of business was swapping out the dash. It had wood inserts with a head unit and two speakers, for which nothing worked. Not surprising as who ever wired this must have been related to Stevie Wonder. Couple that with the technology of bluetooth speakers that blow these little 6.5's out of the water, its gotta go.

Warning: Golf cart steering wheels bond onto the shaft overtime. After soaking it in WD-40 for a few days and a 4lb sledge hammer it finally gave in and came off.

Decided to go with a full new dash since the two cup holders wasn't going to cut it for my program. Since the steering wheel was such a treat to take off, I figured I should reward myself for my patience and decided to toss on a new steering wheel while I was at it.

While I was at it I re-wired all the headlights and tail lights and wired up a new switch when I installed the dash. I am electrically challenged but everything works so its an improvement.

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The brake cables were shot so I swapped those out and got them working properly again. I've got a new set of pads and drums and all the springs/clips but am going to hold off on installing those until I get a baseline for how it handles when it can actually drive in a straight line.

Next up, which is the current state of affairs is addressing the wadded up front end. Owner advertised "needs an alignment" but when I saw the bent steering arm on the passenger side spindle I knew it was going to be more than that. After seeing the hammer marks on the arm (pictured), I decided to pull the wheels off and see what was up. Aside from the steering arm being bent, the passenger side spindle was bound up tight so rather than trying to patch it back together I decided a new lift was in order.

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Will keep this going as the progress continues....
 

King295

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Came home early from the river on Sunday to button up the lift. Installed new tie rod ends on the steering arm and drag link and it now has smooth predictable steering. Overall I'm happy with the kit, went together smoothly and no big surprises. Repacked the front hubs with fresh grease and we are rolling smooth now.

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I have been using my Rhino to launch my Superjet and this thing is going to need to be able to foot the bill so after trying a few different options (all of which were much more secure) I had to settle on this ATV hitch from Harbor Freight. Should do the trick when necessary. Its only held on by one bolt but can only spin about 1/8'' left to right before the material on the hitch receiver catches the plate that it is mounted to so not really concerned about that.

This was pre-washing the cart, got a deep clean after it was rolling under its own power.

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I have a line on extended roofs which will be a nice addition to keep rear passengers in the shade and or coolers / gas cans when on the rear seat or step. Trying to decide between white or black for the roof color. I'm leaning towards black since the white paint on the cart is not a pure white and if they don't match I'm gonna have a hard time looking at it. Any opinions?

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lantz

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I know your new lift will probably get in the way, but I welded on a hitch to the front of my yamaha 36v cart. I don't have trouble backing things anywhere, but having the trailer right in front of you makes life so much easier. Occasionally, I do need to get all of the kids to sit on the back seat or have a friend push a little when the ramp is wet. I have 15 year old bald stock grass tires though which I am sure doesn't help. Looks great!
 

stoker2001

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WOW nice job!Not a fan of any 36V cart tho..needs another 12V:cool:
 

King295

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I know your new lift will probably get in the way, but I welded on a hitch to the front of my yamaha 36v cart. I don't have trouble backing things anywhere, but having the trailer right in front of you makes life so much easier. Occasionally, I do need to get all of the kids to sit on the back seat or have a friend push a little when the ramp is wet. I have 15 year old bald stock grass tires though which I am sure doesn't help. Looks great!

Not a bad idea. I'm hoping this thing can pull it up the ramp, if not its going to be up for sale and I'll grab a newer gas cart. Figured I'd take a risk for the sake of being stealth.

WOW nice job!Not a fan of any 36V cart tho..needs another 12V:cool:

I don't have huge expectations for it but don't demand much outside of an attempt at launching a stand up on small single trailer.

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Pebo

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I launch my 650Sx and my old Seadoo all the at that ramp.
 

King295

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Last night I picked up an 80'' extended top. Ending up going with black since the white top the seller had was pure white and wouldn't match exactly to the paint on the cart. I lucked out and was able to swap the rear supports (struts/candy canes) from facing forwards to backwards which is needed with an extended top. Had to drill out the front support bolt holes to accept the larger bolts that came with the top but the step drill bit made short work of that .

I need to hit the hardware store today to grab a few more shorter bolts since the provided longer bolts with spacers aren't necessary. I'm going to add nylon washers to ensure it doesn't rattle/squeak as well. Pic with the top on is just resting on the supports, looks like it is going to mount up really sano. Should have the top done this evening.

I have to say, I can't wait to get this thing out of my garage..... between remodeling and accumulating things I don't need its time get the garage dialed in next.

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King295

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Damn i love it, wanna sell it?

It is a possibility, need to see if it is going to check all my boxes first. Taking it out to the river this weekend for its shake down run. I may bring it back home to redo the rear seat step which is currently beat to hell. Plan is to pull the plastic cover, replace the wood and cover it in sea dek. I'll pull the rubber floor board mat out as well and put sea dek in as well. Thinking some of the generic Amazon EVA foam should do the trick, something like this:

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King295

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Well, we took the cart out to the river last weekend. Overall I'm really happy with it and it checks all the boxes with the exception of towing my stand up. The Harbor Freight ATV hitch flexes the aluminum that it is mounted to but will work for short stints. Plan will be to have a welder make some tabs on a blank receiver so it mounts to the front and rear bars of the rear seat step similar to those available for other back seat kits but it should work for this summer until I bring the cart home in the winter.

A big reason for picking up this cart was it matched the tow boat, which I'm digging. The real downer is black rims look like shit by the end of the weekend, guess washing it will become a regular task.

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89Scores

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Here’s my beater DS to fix up.
1983 Club Car DS
$400 w working batteries
 

King295

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View attachment 1151597 Here’s my beater DS to fix up.
1983 Club Car DS
$400 w working batteries

You definitely got into it at a great price. These things are fun to tinker with and are relatively cheap. I ended up selling the above cart to my next door neighbor last year on Super Bowl Sunday. He is a Rams fan and his kids and wife were having a blast driving it all around the neighborhood. It never came back into my garage after that.

I ended up picking up an EZGO gas cart which works way better for what I need.
 

Boat211

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You did a great job with it. I had picked up a 48V version of your cart to use for a launch vehicle as well. I ended up taking the original high speed motor out that the previous owner put in and installed a high torque motor. The thing would darn near climb a tree.
 
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