how to reconnect main battery

[MrMeck]

I have a 97 tracker bass boat with one main battery and two trolling motors. I took out the main battery to get charged and when I put it back in the boat, I must have mixed up the wires because some of the wires got real hot. I'm looking for help on how to reconnect this battery. This is how I reconnected what I have that gave me the problem:

To the positive I connected: A large black wire marked positive, a small red wire and a small black wire.

To the negative I connected: A large black wire (which sparked) and a small red

Can anyone help me on this as I really don't know much about this and am embarassed that I screwed up to begin with.

thanks

 

[blifsey]

Re: how to reconnect main battery

Just as a general rule, the red wires are positive and black are negative. But, I guess somebody could've used a wire of wrong color on out setup. The "large black wire marked positive" really sounds odd!

If you do have black wires connecting to positive and red to negative, it might be good idea to buy some black and some red electric tape and wrap over the wrong colored wires.

 

[partskenn]

Re: how to reconnect main battery

Besides the general rule of red to positive, black to negative, you should also have an even amount of wires going to each. You might have one more wire that has flopped off to the side, and is touching something.

 

[Grand Larsony]

Re: how to reconnect main battery

Why would you connect "small black wire" to positive and "small red wire" to negative? Did you not notice that the wire colors were different than the mains?

 

[roscoe]

Re: how to reconnect main battery

After you get this sorted out, and get the motor running, verify that the motor is still charging the battery.

Very likely you fried the voltage rectifier.
Continued use with a fried rectifier will leave you stranded with a dead battery.

And it can/will destroy your ignition system.

 

[ShadowB]

Re: how to reconnect main battery

Generally, with an on board charger (I assume you are using) the starting battery should be red wires to positive, black to negative. Mine has one prime red, one smaller red to positive and one prime black & one smaller black to negative.
With two additional trolling motor batteries wired (in series) #1 battery & #2 battery ?
#1 Positive is wired to #2 Negative ? mine this wire is black.
The remaining hook-ups are normal, i.e.
#1 Battery - Negative, normal black terminal hook-up
#2 Battery - Positive, normal red terminal hook-up, fuse lines go to positive posts on each battery.

This is with a Guide 1, 2 or Both switch.

Note: The second (Car type) Positive battery connector goes to #1 positive. hence one large positive should be hooked to the starting battery and one to positive on #1 trolling. I agree you should make sure they are charging correctly.

 

[Lakemeadan]

Re: how to reconnect main battery

I'm thinking you have the two small ones reversed. Can you see where any of the wires go to and connected to what? I'm more familiar with Automotive but Many of the Marine mechanics on this forum can help if you can trace the end of the wires down. Do you know how to use a ohm meter?

 

[Grandad]

Re: how to reconnect main battery

It's a little hard to troubleshoot remotely without establishing some baseline for your color coding. As was mentioned previously, it is standard convention to use red for positive and black for negative, but it is possible particularly with the larger cables, that someone has used a black conductor for positive because black was more readily available. I would start by following the big black cable from the battery to the engine. If it is connected directly to the engine block, you can be sure that it is the negative cable. It follows that the other large cable would be positive (most likely red, it should connect to your engine's starter solenoid).
The fact that the large cable sparked when it was connected does not mean that it was incorrectly connected. Any previously incorrectly connected wire will set you up for a short circuit and a spark when the remaining wires are later correctly connected. A real indicator of which wires were incorrectly located is "which ones got hot?". You'll have a good baseline for further investigation by getting the big cable polarities established first. I wouldn't connect anything other than the 2 main cables until I had either physically followed the wires or tested circuits using a meter.

 

[Grandad]

Re: how to reconnect main battery

OOPS - Duplicate post.