Trolling motor 12v not working

apenn18

Cadet
Joined
Jul 19, 2011
Messages
6
My dad took out my trolling motor batteries to charge them for me. Not sure why he felt the need to take them out to charge them, but he did. Well I got my boat home and went to hook them back up, but since I didn't unhook them, i wasn't sure which wires went to which battery. All I could do was trial and error. There are 2 blacks and 2 reds. I hooked one red to battery 1 and one black to battery 1. It sparked and smoke came out of my twistlock plug up front by the trolling motor. The trolling motor has a on-off-on 12/24 switch. Now when I have it flipped to 24v it runs, but on 12v i get nothing. Any suggestions?
 

jigngrub

Fleet Admiral
Joined
Mar 19, 2011
Messages
8,155
Re: Trolling motor 12v not working

Sounds like you have the wires hooked up backwards to me.
 

Silvertip

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Sep 22, 2003
Messages
28,758
Re: Trolling motor 12v not working

Look at the wires again -- carefully. You should have a red & black pair which would connect to battery #1. The other pair will be red and black with each wire having a tracer (stripe) in it which connect to battery #2. That second pair may be different colors such as orange and white or orange and black. If you had smoke at the receptacle, you better pull it (or the entire panel) and look at the back side. Smoke means heat and heat means melted components. You may also have toasted something in the motor. The last tip is to tell others to keep their hands off your stuff. And you are correct, batteries do not need to be removed for charging.
 

apenn18

Cadet
Joined
Jul 19, 2011
Messages
6
Re: Trolling motor 12v not working

I did pull the panel. I have all four wires hooked up and put an ohm meter to all four posts on the back of the receptacle. Although the 24 volt side of the switch is what was getting power, I'm only getting 12v. I guess it fried something in the motor like you said. I've checked all the wires and I can get 12v on both sides everywhere, except at the actual motor. I've taken the trolling motor head apart, and whenever I flip the switch to one side I cannot get any juice at all. I'm out of ideas other than to replace the trolling motor. (BTW, hope you didn't take my post in the other thread too personally silvertip, just don't like being talked to like a child).
 

apenn18

Cadet
Joined
Jul 19, 2011
Messages
6
Re: Trolling motor 12v not working

Thought I'd let y'all know I figured it out and got it working. The twistlock plug (male end) is where the jumper is to go from 4w to 3w and gets the 24v. I took it apart and there is a piece of bi-metal molded into the plug jumping the ground to a positive. It burned in two. So until I can get to the store to get a replacement I cut a short piece of 10 gauge w wire and made my own jumper inside the plug.
 
Top