The Steering Goes Away on my
EZ-GO TXT Cart

     I live in a small town where an ordinance allows golf carts to be driven on the city streets. There are certain safety features that are required, but nothing outside of the ordinary. I have a 1998 EZ-GO TXT - as of this writing that makes it a whopping 22 years old. The Antique Automobile Club of America defines an antique car as over 50 years of age, and later cars are often described as classic cars. By those standards I guess that while my cart isn't quite an antique, at least not yet, I would guess that it could certainly be considered "classic" (LOL).

     Okay, so here's what happened. I'd driven downtown and pulled into a parking space, and as I straightened the wheels back out I felt a little pull on the steering wheel. It wasn't anything major, so I assumed that it was just my imagination. When I got back to the cart I turned on the key, pushed down the accelerator, and turned the steering wheel, but the front tires didn't move. I rolled forward and hit the brakes before running into the car in front of me. As I turned the steering wheel, it just clicked, but there was no movement in the front wheels. I put it into reverse to back up, and as I did so I instinctively turned the steering wheel... and I saw that this time the front wheels moved!

     I then realized that although I might not be able to get it back to the CartCave, I could at least get it off the streets of downtown. Long story, short: I managed, little by little, to get it down first one backstreet and then another until I finally drove it into the CartCave. There had been a lot of play in the steering since I first bought the cart, and it looked like the steering box had finally given up the ghost.

     At my regular Friday lunch with the guys (where almost everyone owns a golf cart, and one fellow owns a dozen or more) we discussed the problem, and the general consensus was that the steering box assembly had to be replaced. I'm not a mechanic by any stretch of the imagination, but I set out to try to see what I could do.

     Even though my golf cart is "classic," when I bought it one of the extras was a full set of manuals. I looked up the part number for the steering box assembly, which was 70314-G02. When I did an online search, I found out that the part was being sold through Amazon for $188.99, and with $15.59 sales tax, I could get a new steering box assembly for $204.58.

     Since I'm an Amazon Prime member, shipping was not only free, but the part would be on my doorstep in only two days. That solved the problem of getting a new part, but how to install it was a completely different issue. With another web search I located an incredible youtube.com video showing step-by-step how to exactly install a new steering box assembly on my cart. Here is the link to the video:

1994 thru 2000 EZ-GO TXT Steering Box Replacement

Jay Nester, the fellow that did the video, does an outstanding job from unboxing the new part to taking the repaired cart out for a spin. I watched it several times, forwarded it to my friend the Chairman, and then ordered the part.

In two days the new steering box assembly came in, and the Chairman and I trailered the golf cart out to his shop to make the installation. We didn't take the cart off the trailer - instead we rolled it up to the edge, jacked it up and put it on two jack stands. Doing that gave us a lot more room to work. As it turned out, the process went exactly like in the instructional video above. I mean exactly. That's one great video, and a big, big thanks to Jay Nester for making it.

I think that we spent about an hour-and-a-half on the actual steering box installation, but we ran into a separate problem with the lights which ate up a little more time... but it was time well-spent. I'll have a separate posting about the light issue.

By the way, I'm not trying to be like the pop singer Sia who combs her hair down over her face to hide it. It's just that I do wear my hair sort of long, and when I lean over it falls down. I didn't mean for it to look like I'm in the witness protection program or something like that.

Happy carting,
The Psychic

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