The golf cart would beep, but it would not move. It was not on a green somewhere, mind you, but in our church fellowship hall where it normally is. We use it to shuttle people from the parking lot to the church during special events and even just on normal days for some of our seasoned citizens. But last week, when I went to move it, beeping, but no moving.
Within minutes, I had my ratchet set and electrical kit there. I took the negative cables off all of the batteries, tested each one and found that three of the six batteries were at nearly zero volts rather than the required eight volts. When any battery for some reason drops below six volts, the charger will no longer operate for any of them, and they all die one by one. But with each one now disconnected from the others, I was able to put a trickle charger individually on the low batteries. When each one reached at least six volts, I hooked everything back up, and the charger began charging all of them to the appropriate level. And now, at tomorrow’s ladies meeting, we should be able to offer a few hundred ladies a ride to the fellowship hall and church if they desire it.
Outside, one of the lights that is supposed to shine on our building is going on and off at regular intervals during the night. And this tells me that the gentleman who installed the photoelectric eye recently to replace the malfunctioning one (Me, I am the one who goofed) inadvertently switched the red and black wires. So today, I will switch those back, and all should be well.
Yes, I am going somewhere with this, but please let me give you another maintenance note before I get there. Last month, one of the urinals in the men’s restroom started leaking constantly. On the front of the flush valve is a little cap nut. By removing it, I exposed a screw that, when I tightened it down, stopped the water flow. Then I removed the entire valve, changed the gasket, reassembled everything, loosened the screw, reinstalled the cap nut, and it now works as it should with no leaking.
And I did not know how to do any of this before I became a pastor.