Motorguide Trolling Motor problem

[kenjenmo]

Let me preface this by saying that I am a novice boater. I recently purchased a 1982 Basstracker III boat that had a foot powered Motorguide trolling motor setup on the bow for fishing. The trolling motor worked great during the demo before I bought the boat and it worked great the first time I took it out on an electric only lake. The trolling motor stopped as I was bringing it to the trailer, I figured it was just a dead battery because I had run it pretty hard in the wind that day. I charged the battery up and tested the motor and it seemed to work.<br />About a week later I tried it again and the motor spun for a few seconds and stopped. I thought the battery might be going bad so I charged it again and tried the motor, it did nothing. I had the battery tested and was told it did not have enough CCA's to run anything. I bought a new battery and took it home, hooked it up, tried the motor again and it spun for a few seconds and stopped again. I am at a loss as to what else to try now. I noticed there are fuses under the console, do they have anything to do with the trolling motor, are there any other things I can try? Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.

 

[jtexas]

Re: Motorguide Trolling Motor problem

Welcome to iboats, ken.<br /><br />Does your motorguide have a dial on one side that has an "off" setting and speeds 1 thru 5? try it at different settings. Does it have a 3-position toggle switch on the side of the pedal that has "Hspd" "MOM" and "C.on"? (high speed, momentary and constant-on) Try it on all three settings. Might give us a clue if one of the switches is going bad.<br /><br />Check for corrosion in the connections from the battery to the outlet on the boat and also on the plug on the motor.<br /><br />Look at the maze of wires under the foot pedal in case there's any disconnected or loose connections there. I found one pulled loose one day.<br /><br />There may be a circuit breaker on the trolling motor circuit and it might be auto-reset, which would explain it coming and going. You'll have to trace the wires to find it though, or maybe somebody else here knows where it is? If it is a fuse it would be 30, maybe 40 amp, maybe more. Have to be the highest-rated fuse on your fuse panel if it's there.<br /><br />Let us know what you find out.<br /><br />john

 

[kenjenmo]

Re: Motorguide Trolling Motor problem

Thanks for the reply John. The pedal has the dial on the side with speed settings 1-5 and and "off" setting. I have tried it on all as well as on all three settings with the toggle switch. There is no corrosion on the battery that I can tell, I will check the plug at the front of the boat and make sure it is clean also. I am also going to dig around for a circuit breaker as well.