What does the switch do...?

Hello everybody, ont new to iboat forums but I do have a new question for the educated folks on here on older trolling motors. I recently bought an old Motor Guide III foot controlled trolling motor and as usual completely tore it apart for refurbishing. The motor was completely perfect without one drop of water in that section. In fact nearly everything was in pretty good condition except for two things. The first was the steering cable which believe it or not is still available, but I managed to cut out the end that was rusted through and rebuild it back to like new condition. So with the steering cable now shorten about 3" to 4" all is again like new. The second issue was the three position switch on the side of the foot pedal. The toggle post was snapped off. Looking at it it looks like a simple DPDT center off toggle switch. BUT it is certainly not. This switch has internal setup to make it very unusual and a simple DPDT center off switch will not work. That brings me to my actual question. What function does this switch actual do. Is it a three position speed switch? There is no OFF position but beyond that I just don't know without an original wiring diagram of how it works. Now that is near impossible to find because of its age. Does anybody know or remember what the three positions actually do? Thanks for any assistance and replies. I have everything nearly ready to reassemble and it will look like new again and function like new also...at least once I understand the three positions do so I can wire it correctly.

Re: What does the switch do...?

If its like the one I have its.

High speed by pass
off
normal run

Re: What does the switch do...?

MH Hawker said:

If its like the one I have its.

High speed by pass
off
normal run

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. I reassembled the motor section today and there are four color wires going to the motor foot assembly being Black, Red, Blue and Yellow. Connecting the black and red wires to a battery observing the correct polarities the motor runs at its fastest speed, attaching the blue and black wires with black again being the ground or negative terminal the motor runs a little slower, attaching the black and yellow wires and the motor runs even slow then the black and blue wires. So it seems there are three speeds prewired for this Motor Guide III trolling motor. So the switch has to be for three speeds. Knowing that (or assuming that) I will wire it back with a three speed setup. But I am also building a PWM circuit to allow variable speeds as well...that PWM circuit will be housed into the trolling motor receptacle panel and not on the actual trolling motor itself giving me the capability to use it with whatever trolling motor I plug in now or in the future...

Re: What does the switch do...?

I have actually verified that the switch in question is indeed a three speed switch. And I know some are questioning how a DPDT toggle switch can be a three speed switch. I know I wondered as well. But a clever wiring technique allows it to actual work that way. While it is a true DPDT three position type toggle switch, it isn't a normal toggle switch per say. I had a huge problem understanding how they managed to get three speeds out of a DPDT switch. So being how the switch was already broken (the toggle arm was broken off) I disassembled it. And what did I see inside...? Well when the switch is in the usual center OFF position, it really is not an OFF position after all. It has the internal setting like in this picture;



It seems these DPDT toggle switches were specially made just for this application. The tabs inside are uniquely bent to work this way. So no other DPDT three position switch will work. Which brings me to a question. Since there are no discernible unique part numbers on this switch and I can't locate one because of its age, does anybody know where to purchase one...?

Re: What does the switch do...?

you want something like this but with out the switch locking option http://www.jameco.com/Jameco/Products/ProdDS/1817426.pdf

Re: What does the switch do...?

glenn property of pam said:

you want something like this but with out the switch locking option http://www.jameco.com/Jameco/Products/ProdDS/1817426.pdf

Click to expand...

Great find there Glen POP, it looks like that IS exactly how my switch works perfectly. However, that switch cost (at some places) $90 dollars without shipping. I did find it around $40 bucks but I was wondering where Motor Guide got theirs from. This is a used trolling motor and $40 bucks is more then half the used purchased price I paid. Since I am building a variable (PWM) circuit for it anyway, I may just wire it for low and high settings and use the variable for everything else... Either way, thanks for the reply and switch find. I actually used some of those pull to change position type switches before...

Re: What does the switch do...?

i did think the switch was well over what you would pay but i posted it so you could get the description of the switch its a dpdt 3 position on/on/on maintained non illuminated non locking switch....lol
I would delete the slow wire and just wire fast and medium or like you said use a pwm board and the high speed winding.