How to Connect Batteries in a Club Car Golf Cart

Golf carts have becoming increasingly popular for personal use in recent years. Many people now own their own golf carts for recreation. Electric golf carts require minimal maintenance. Batteries are the power source for the cart and these need regular charging. With a cart that has been used for a while, it may be necessary to replace the batteries. A new cart may not have batteries. Connecting a battery to your Club Car golf cart is a pretty easy task, as the wiring system for the batteries is fairly basic.

Lift the seat of the golf cart in order to access the battery compartment. You may need to use a rope or bungee cord to secure the seat in the open position so that you can work freely within the compartment.

Remove the old batteries by first disconnecting the battery cables. The cables are typically secured with a wing nut. You may need a pair of pliers to loosen them. Once the cables are removed, lift out the old batteries.

Place the new batteries into the compartment. Use a wire brush to clean the terminal connectors on the battery cables.

Connect the first battery cable from the control box to the positive terminal of the first battery in the sequence. The positive terminal will be marked with a "+" sign and is usually denoted by red color-coding.

Connect a cable from the negative terminal of the first battery, which will be marked with a "-" sign and black if color coded, to the positive terminal of the second battery in the sequence. Connect a cable from the negative terminal of the second battery to the positive terminal of the third battery. Continue connecting negative to positive until you reach the last battery.

Make the final connection of the negative cable from the control box to the negative terminal of the last battery in the sequence to complete the loop.

Connect the remaining cable to any one of the positive terminals on the batteries. Once you have finished the main battery loop, you will note that there is one cable remaining unattached. This will be coming from the control box or from the solenoid at the rear of the cart, depending on the cart style. This cable engages the reverse motor.

Tips

Coating the battery posts and terminal connections with petroleum jelly will help combat corrosion.