Trolling Motor Problem

[Newt]

When I put my boat away for the winter the trolling motor worked fine.

I took the bow control panel apart and remounted my depthfinder, when I put it all back together the trolling motor did not work.

Any idea on where to start trouble shooting?

[Slushpuppy]

Have you tried holding the switch down on the pedal and shaking the plug-in connector at the bow panel? Did you check to see if it worked right just before you pulled out the bow panel, you may have pulled one of the wires out of the back side of the receptacle? If you have a volt meter you can unplug the connector for the t/m at the bow panel and see what kind of voltage you find at the receptacle.
If you do not have correct voltage (12,24,or 36 depending on your t/m) you may want to start checking at the batteries. You should have a square resetable breaker at batteries, see if any of them need reset. (push-in plastic tab) Hope you figure it out !

[Newt]

Thanks for the info Slushpuppy.

I checked the voltage, I had none at the bow panel.

I checked the batteries. One battery is at about 13 volts the other one is at 12.95 volts.
When I check across both batteries I have 0 volts.

Apparently one of the breakers is out. I did not notice any breakers, I didn't know what I was looking for. I'm going to check to see if I can figure out the breakers.

BTW I have a 24 volt Minn Kota Maxxum.

I disassembled the whole bow panel to take it inside to work on it, I'm in PA and the garage is unheated. When I reassembled it I inadvertantly touched the hot lead to ground and it sparked a bit, I evidently through a breaker at that point.

[Newt]

Fixed. The breaker was out on the tie between the 2 batteries.

[Rodney Bledsoe]

BBC at it finest

[Newt]

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Thanks to the people on BBC.