Golf Cart Light Switches

J

jmellc

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
Occupation
Facility Maintenance Tech. Licensed Electrician
Never did a lot of vehicle wiring so some things confuse me a bit, not hard to do. I see a few golf cart light switches that are on/off, 2 position but have 3 spade terminals for load, line and ground. Somehow doesn't quite add up. Seems that would make a direct fault from line to ground, positive and negative. Have no prints for the circuits and usually don't have time to track out wiring. How does this make sense? Logical to me would be that the lights go direct from shell to ground & switch would connect line & load. Thanks for any help.
 
Yeah, I get the confusion. That third terminal is probably just for the switch’s internal light. It won’t short anything out—just lets the light turn on when the switch is active. Your logic on line and load is spot on. Hope that helps!
 
Probably the switch manufacturer uses the same switch body for both lighted and unlighted switches to save on inventory, they just snap the proper cover on. The third terminal is probably a dummy. Golf carts use only two of the batteries for the lights and accessories.
 
curt swartz said:
Are you referring to golf cart vehicles, which I know nothing about.

Definitely not true for auto's. The positive is always switched. The negative is the chassis.
Click to expand...
Maybe not now, but decades ago when my friends and I did stuff with cars, the door switches just had one wire. When the switch closed it made the circuit between the light and the chassis.
 
don_resqcapt19 said:
Maybe not now, but decades ago when my friends and I did stuff with cars, the door switches just had one wire. When the switch closed it made the circuit between the light and the chassis.
Click to expand...
Even still now. I almost commented on this earlier.

Door switches, fuel gauges, horn buttons, starter circuits, and various senders and sensors often have the switch or variable resistor in the grounded leg of the circuit.
 
curt swartz said:
Are you referring to golf cart vehicles, which I know nothing about.

Definitely not true for auto's. The positive is always switched. The negative is the chassis.
Click to expand...
Don't know about today's vehicles, but years ago I was working on the window switches and door locks and the ground was switched in those. It was a Toyota Camry.
 
LarryFine said:
Even still now. I almost commented on this earlier.

Door switches, fuel gauges, horn buttons, starter circuits, and various senders and sensors often have the switch or variable resistor in the grounded leg of the circuit.
Click to expand...
It probably makes sense...there will be a lesser amount of wire in the vehicle where a ground fault from insulation failure will result in a short circuit. A ground fault on a switch leg where the switch connects the switch leg to ground only results in turning on that device, not a short circuit.
 
curt swartz said:
Are you referring to golf cart vehicles, which I know nothing about.

Definitely not true for auto's. The positive is always switched. The negative is the chassis.
Click to expand...
Golf cart light switches, specifically. Not sure all I've seen are original. Some are standard 2 pole on/off switches, a couple are on/off 3 pole. For sure not on/off/on. None appear to have any sort of pilot light that I can see. Makes things hard that we have no prints & only a few bosses have purchasing authority. No telling what they may come back with. Lots of guesswork, lots of rigging.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top