Hey guys,

So I bought a 125cc taotao motor on Amazon and installed it on an electric golf cart after gutting it of course. Got motor in made shifter ran wiring. Its electric start, 3 spd auto with reverse. In the rear i installed a live axle. During my maiden voyage i was cruisin about 25mph and let go of the gas and the rear end locked up and it came to an abrupt halt. Guessing chain bound up because I used a tensioner, shouldn't of, now it turns over super hard even with new starter. It cracked the stator case a little but not enough to make the turn over issue. Was just fine before the incident. Everything seems sound and looks good. Can turn it over by hand so I cannot figure out the issue... HELP!

 

Take the alternator cover off and the plug out, then turn the flywheel round by hand, if it doesn't spin easily, there must be a problem, probably with flywheel catching on something, my guess would be case bent onto flywheel. If you can't find anything wrong at flywheel side, but crank is binding somewhere, check for a problem at the clutch, by removing cover on that side.

 

If you cracked the stator cover then something let go inside to do that... using a tensioner on the chain should have been no reason for the chain to bind up it would have the opposite effect. You are running a machine that is probably 4-5 x the weight of the atv it was designed for so the weight of the machine overcame the engine as now you have the weight of the machine pushing the engine, I would almost bet it forced the timing out. A gas golf cart set up uses clutching similar to a snowmobile or larger atv with a belt so it slips when you slow down and don't over come the engine..

 

So after everything I hooked up cables to a car battery to try and get it started. Still cranked super hard and ended up melting a green wire. How do I go about fixing the timing issue if you guys still think that's the issue?

 

Extremely unlikely to be timing. As I wrote earlier, take the plug out and the flywheel cover off, and find out why it is stiff to turn.I had a Suzuki LT50 recently that had thrown the drive chain and damaged the case next to the flywheel, when I took the cover off, the case was rubbing on the flywheel.