Trolling motor connection problems

12 volt terrova. 2006 Alumacraft navigator. Trolling motor was hooked up prior to getting the boat. 2 batteries in what I think was parallel. I never really paid attention.

Trolling motor worked last night. Got to spot today and it wouldn’t start. I started taking connections off. I have cables labeled 1 and 2 that have what appears to be minn kota symbol on them. Positive and negative on both. 2 other positive and negative cables that I don’t know what they are for.

I followed the hummingbird diagram for parallel connections. Do I need to hook up both the cables labeled 1 and 2?

I’m certainly not an electrical guru but if it’s a 12 volt system with 2 batteries you will need to link the 2 batteries by connecting a jumper wire between the 2 batteries. 1 on the positive end of 1 battery 1 one end on the negative of the other.
Can’t help you with the minnkota 1 or 2 labeled wires. Are they colored in any way red or black?

CaptainMusky wrote:

I’m certainly not an electrical guru but if it’s a 12 volt system with 2 batteries you will need to link the 2 batteries by connecting a jumper wire between the 2 batteries. 1 on the positive end of 1 battery 1 one end on the negative of the other.
Can’t help you with the minnkota 1 or 2 labeled wires. Are they colored in any way red or black?

Each of the 2 cables has a negative and positive end. I’m just confused as to why I would need both of these cables hooked up for a 12v trolling motor. If it was March I wouldn’t be worried and I would just take it in, but it’s go time and I’m guessing a mechanic is weeks out. I’m going to stop by mechanic tomorrow and see what he thinks.

Call Fishelectronics and see what they say.

For Minnkota, the cable labeled refer to the battery and which port it goes to on the charger.

I’m not sure why you have 2 batteries for a 12 volt system but you should have positive and negative to the battery from the TM. You’ll then have the batteries wired in parallel and then you’ll run the batteries to what I assume is a 2 back charger.

If it was me, and it wasn’t working, I’d run the TM right to a single battery(with a circuit breaker). For a 12v system that should work.

Several questions that need to be answered. Do you have a separate cranking battery? If so then you are running two batteries in parallel.

Description is to hard to decipher without a picture but looking up how to hook up batteries in parallel will answer a lot of your questions.

I assume you have an on board charger as well. Hooking that back up correctly will be important too.

I would suggest taking a picture next time before disconnecting cables and wires.

Unless the nuts were loose I doubt the problem is the batteries connections themselves. I would suggest checking fuses first and work from their once you get it all connected again.

smallie83 wrote:

I have cables labeled 1 and 2 that have what appears to be minn kota symbol on them. Positive and negative on both

This sounds more like cables from a on board charger. If your trolling motor is 12 volt then I would connect the trolling motor to just one battery and see if it works then move foreward with the rest of the wiring.