Overheating is one of the more obvious signs of a bad starter generator in a golf cart.
A bad starter-generator can heat up to an extent that it starts letting out smoke after a short while.

A starter generator starts overheating primarily when the current it produces becomes more than what is needed to run the golf cart.
The starter generator is usually enclosed, which means that there is no chance for it to cool down either on heating.

The starter generator is attached to certain other components like brushes and pulley of the starter.
When the connection between these components becomes loose, the flow of current in starter generator coil gets disturbed.
This too can cause overheating of the starter generator.

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