Trolling motor (wiring?) problem

[frazwood]

I bought a Tracker boat in 2007 (new).   I have had few problems with the boat, although the trolling motor had an issue last year and I had it repaired and it was fine for the rest of the year.

This spring, I decided to replace the original marine battery (somehow it lasted almost 10 years) in May.  Everything worked fine for the first weekend, but other than that... I have had a busy year and I have not used the boat or fished very much with it.  A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that the trolling motor was no longer working.  It didn't even register that the battery had any charge... but all of the other electronics on the boat worked.  I used a voltmeter and the battery seemed to be fully charged.

Although I was initially certain that trolling motor was broken, I had a suspicion that maybe the wiring was bad.  Sure enough, I am unable to measure any voltage where at the trolling motor receptacle.  Further evidence that I have a wiring problem, I took some spare wire from my recent DIY home improvement project and connected the battery to the trolling motor directly... and the trolling motor worked fine.  I assumed that the circuit breaker in the wiring was the problem but I removed it and I still don't have power at the motor.

The only thing that I can think of... is that somehow the wiring has become disconnected somewhere underneath the boat's decking (which I haven't figured out how to access), but that doesn't make sense to me... how would those wires become disconnected since they are not even accessible.

To sum up, I'm pretty much stumped.  Any thoughts?

p.s. My plan for a "solution" would be to simply buy new wiring... and just connect the wires to the battery each time that I want to use the trolling motor (i.e., have the wires running across the boat... not ideal).

[delcecchi]

You should be able to pull new wires, say 8 gauge copper, from the battery area to the receptacle where the TM plugs in.   You should be able to use the old wires to pull them in one direction or the other.   

But! are you sure it is not the plug/socket that has gone bad?   Did you use a meter to check where the wire connects to the socket?   Maybe you will be lucky and all you need is a new socket. 

 

You should be able to pull new wires, say 8 gauge copper, from the battery area to the receptacle where the TM plugs in.   You should be able to use the old wires to pull them in one direction or the other.   

But! are you sure it is not the plug/socket that has gone bad?   Did you use a meter to check where the wire connects to the socket?   Maybe you will be lucky and all you need is a new socket. 

 

[BobT]

On 9/17/2016 at 3:32 PM, frazwood said:

I bought a Tracker boat in 2007 (new).   I have had few problems with the boat, although the trolling motor had an issue last year and I had it repaired and it was fine for the rest of the year.

This spring, I decided to replace the original marine battery (somehow it lasted almost 10 years) in May.  Everything worked fine for the first weekend, but other than that... I have had a busy year and I have not used the boat or fished very much with it.  A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that the trolling motor was no longer working.  It didn't even register that the battery had any charge... but all of the other electronics on the boat worked.  I used a voltmeter and the battery seemed to be fully charged.

Although I was initially certain that trolling motor was broken, I had a suspicion that maybe the wiring was bad.  Sure enough, I am unable to measure any voltage where at the trolling motor receptacle.  Further evidence that I have a wiring problem, I took some spare wire from my recent DIY home improvement project and connected the battery to the trolling motor directly... and the trolling motor worked fine.  I assumed that the circuit breaker in the wiring was the problem but I removed it and I still don't have power at the motor.

The only thing that I can think of... is that somehow the wiring has become disconnected somewhere underneath the boat's decking (which I haven't figured out how to access), but that doesn't make sense to me... how would those wires become disconnected since they are not even accessible.

To sum up, I'm pretty much stumped.  Any thoughts?

p.s. My plan for a "solution" would be to simply buy new wiring... and just connect the wires to the battery each time that I want to use the trolling motor (i.e., have the wires running across the boat... not ideal).

Mice?!

[SledNeck]

Meter: continuity check on wires and fuse separate 

If it was me, just for piece of mind (not knowing other peoples electrical hack jobs. Id fish new ones on the old ones, pull them through connect to new receptacle. Likely a hack splice in there or damage. 

[SkunkedAgain]

Mice, corrosion, bare wire grounding. Lot's of thing move around and can chafe when boats pound through waves or are trailored around. As Sledneck said, check the continuity of the wires using your multimeter. You'll likely find a bad wire. Connect new wires to the old wires and pull through. If that isn't feasible just run new wires in a discrete way up to the trolling motor and make sure to use an inline fuse.