Trolling motor power loss

[Mike S.]

I took the prop off and there was nothing.  Thursday night, I went fishing with my buddy that I got the boat from, and while he was here I had him look at it.  The tm has a 12 volt or 24 volt switch on it.  On 24 volts, it runs, but slowly.  If you switch it to 12 volts, it won't do anything.  I have to look at my wiring.  Maybe I have something switched around?

[djkimmel]

Look at the plug first. The jumper. The connections inside the plug and at the back of the female end. Most common cause.

A less common cause is the control board in the motor. But often that means you have hi bypass only and slow power otherwise so I'm still betting on loose or corroded wiring.

[Mike S.]

I'm not seeing anything with the plug as the issue.  I was just out playing with it and I am 100% certain that it is only pulling power from 1 battery.  I disconnected them one at a time, and found that it is running from just one, while the switch on the motor is on 24 volt.  If you switch it to 12 volts, it just stops running on 1 or 2 batteries.  I chased the wires from the battery it isn't running from, to the breaker in the back of the boat, and tried to reset it.  Of the 2 buttons on the breaker, the one on the left is the only one that will push in.  When I hooked that battery back up, I got sparks.  The other battery doesn't do that.  I am posting a pic of the breaker, so that you can see what I'm talking about.  I am going to pull it out tomorrow and see if there's a bad connection to it, being as it looks pretty crusty in the pic I took.

[djkimmel]

That would be the next place to look for a loose,corroded or bad connection. You might just need a new breaker switch which is a lot cheaper than a new motor. Good luck.

[Mike S.]

The breaker switch for the second battery is shot.  I have power from the battery to the breaker, but nothing from the breaker to the tm.  Now I just have to find a pair quickly here in town.  Figure I might as well change both while everything is apart.  Thanks for the help guys.