Golf Cart Electrical Help Needed

Hello,

I need some electrical help with my golf cart. The old headlights are failing. They are LED and like half the array of bulbs had burnt out and they aren't the kind you can individually replace. So I bought an almost identical looking headlight assembly online that had the same connector as the original ones. However, when they arrived the three wires are in different order than the original, as shown:

So here is the original connector, wires go black/white/red into the connector.



Here's just a top down view of the old connector showing the orientation of the openings. Same wire layout black/white/red.



Here is the new headlight connector. If I orient the connector in the same way as the original shown above, the wire layout is red/black/white (as opposed to black/white/red) as you can see from the picture below.



The headlights don't work if I just plug them in as-is. My question is, can I just de-pin the new connector and swap the wires so they match what the original headlight configuration was (black/white/red)? I'm no good at electrical work so I apologize if this is an idiotic question.

 

Yeah that might work.

 

Sounds like that would fly, yup.

My suggestion is use heat shrink tubing on any splicing if you happen to splice. That will keep water out.

 

I bought a little de-pinning kit from Amazon that should arrive tonight so i'll try to see if this idea works.

 

Sweet, perfect world that's the best way to go as you won't have to splice.

 

Damn, that didn't work. Here is the back of the old/new headlights. The new headlights have two extra grey wires sticking out but I watched some YouTube video where the guy was like ya don't worry about those just leave them unplugged.

Any ideas? I did notice that on the back of the old headlight the main headlight has a black and red wire coming out whereas the new headlight has a white and red wire coming out. And the little side lights (circular) have different wires coming out. I have a feeling the white and black wires on the new headlights aren't matching what the old headlights are doing. May need to unravel the tape and see all the connections.

 

Did the new headlight assembly come with a wiring diagram? I'm curious about that female ended grey wire...almost looks like it's spliced in somewhere under the electrical tape. Is the grey taking the place of the black for the main headlight and spliced in with the black of the marker? Don't even know if that would work.

I really have no clue though. Never owned a golf cart, let alone fooled with the wiring on one.

 

No wiring diagram provided. You are correct about the gray wire. There is only one gray wire coming out of the main light panel but then its split into a male and female end under the tape somewhere. I did email the store I purchased them from. Of course I missed the *fine print* that says an additional wiring harness or harness adapter may be required with purchase of headlights. So i'm just asking them if I need the whole harness or just the adapter.

It pays to read things closely!

 

Ya I needed to buy a $10 harness adapter.

On a side note, my title says I have a 2010 but EZGO looked up my cart by serial number during this process and said its a 2012. Interesting.

Anyways, the guys at GolfCartGarage went above and beyond to help me out with this issue.

 

Ugh, as part of my Golf Cart upgrade I also am replacing the rear shocks. Of course, the left rear shock bolt broke inside the hole so I'll need to buy a bolt extractor kit and the right shock bolt that goes into a welded on nut (on the backside of the frame mount) and that welded on nut broke loose. So now I have a broken stud on one side and a stuck bolt into a loose nut on the other side. Things just can't be easy!

 

Got the passenger side rear shock all finished up. Went to Ace and grabbed new hardware for both sides. Still waiting on my bolt extractor kit to come to tackle the drivers side shock.

Also, back on the electrical side, I actually contacted RHOX, the OEM for the headlights I purchased. After much back and forth they were basically like ya you need to buy our wiring harness. That was more than I want to do so I'm returning the lights and jumper and ordered different headlights that look like they'll just plug right in.

 

Well, to wrap up this thread: ended up buying different headlights... they came and plugged right in and worked. The rear shocks on the other hand... geez! Both sides were so rusted together. The drivers side was the one with the broken bolt... tried drilling through the bolt then using a bolt extractor kit. After breaking two screws I ended up buying a center punch and 'pushing' the whole the thread/bolt mixture through the hole with a BFH. The passenger side I had to jerry rig like two crescent wrenches, another wrench and a socket to separate the bolt from the nut. Finally got both shocks replaced with new hardware.

Shes back on the road and good to go now though so that's all that matters.