Many E-Z-Go owners have experienced hearing a grinding noise at the rear end of the cart when trying to take off. A cart with this symptom will usually either not move or will only lunge a bit but won’t make it very far. This symptom is caused when there is a problem with one of the rear hubs. E-Z-Go’s design is a little different than many others in that they use a hub and drum combination. The part is attached to the axle with a set of splines that mate with spines on the end of the axle. The hub/drum is secured to the end of the axle with a castle nut that is usually covered with a dust cover.
To see if a hub is the problem with the noise and non-movement, you can just take the rear hubcaps off and remove the dust covers and try to move the cart with the motor (engine). While depressing the accelerator, watch the castle nuts. If a hub has the problem that we are speaking of, you will see the castle nut moving, even though the wheel isn’t spinning. The differential, of course, tries to transfer the torque of the motor to the easiest side to move, so the spinning axle side will be quite obvious. The hub/drum is always what stripes out, it is hardly ever the splines on the axle.
The hub/drum is easily replaced, however, there are a couple of things to remember to do the job right. To replace the hub/drum, you simply remove the dust cover and then the castle nut and pull the unit off of the end of the axle. There is a cotter key through the castle nut that must be removed to get the castle nut off. Once the hub/nut is removed, it is VERY important to clean the remaining splines on the end of the axle. If you don’t, the metal shavings and debris that is left in the splines will get compacted into the area where the hub bottoms out against the outer axle bearing assembly. If that happens, when installing the new hub/drum, even though the castle nut is tightened, with rotation of the axle and vibration etc. the debris will eventually work its way out and there will be additional space “developed” (where the debris was) that will result in a loose castle nut. I go to the trouble of taking a small “pick” of some sorts and running up and down each spline on the axle several times to clean the stuff out of there. After that, I use some parts cleaner to wash everything out. I then put a small amount grease on the spline and slide the new hub/nut onto the axle. It is very important to tighten the castle nut to the right torque. The documentation that I have seen says that it should be tightened between 90 and 140 ft. lbs. That is pretty darned tight. You really should have a torque wrench to do it right. I bring the torque up to about 100 ft. lbs. and then continue tightening it until the next hole in in the axle that accommodates the cotter key lines up with a slot in the castle nut. That way I know it is just over 100 ft. lbs. and that always works just fine. If the castle nut isn’t tightened enough, there will be some slight movement of the hub on the axle and it will strip the splines on the new hub/drum in no time at all.
For information about books written by Ron Staley about both electric and gas driven golf carts and their repair, visit the following links.
Electric Golf Cart Repair, both as an eBook and in Hardcopy:
Book: Ronald L Staley: 9780578560557: Amazon.com: Books
Gas Golf Cart Repair, both as an eBook and in Hardcopy:Gas Golf Cart Repair Book: Ron Staley: 9798987911303: Amazon.com: Books