motor guide wireless trolling power issues

[fishingfan]

HI all, a few questions. My trolling motor will not turn on...

- battery, charged, tested - all good.
- 40 amps fuse checked, all good.
- plug and receptacle, new, all good. I get power to the receptacle, and continuity through the plug, so all good there...
- when I plug it in, the battery level indicator will not even light up when I use the test button in the motor...

Has anyone taken the motor apart before to for internal wires/switches/windings?

I am quite handy and do most repairs myself, but have never had to get into the internals of a trolling motor before, so any advise would be appreciated.

In Aylmer, Quebec.

Thanks!
Fishingfan....

[smitty55]

A quick google check shows lots of issues with those motors, most of them seem to be electrical. Some won't turn on, others won't turn right or left. Motor and pedal issues seem common as well as circuit boards. If you're handy then it won't hurt to start dismantling the pedal for a start, then the head unit. Your eyes can often find the issue, like bad connections or blown components or often just a swollen capacitor. Bell sat receivers are bad for caps in particular for example. Also sometimes continuity can look good with a meter but once power is applied it's a different story. Good luck, google is your friend.

Cheers

[fishingfan]

Thanks, that was were I was going to go next, time to bring the ipad to the garage I guess.

I will start with the head unit as it is a wireless control.

Thanks again.

Fishingfan

[fishingfan]

So, I took the motor apart...it was quite dirty with magnetic dust, a small section of the magnet had flaked off, maybe the 3/8" wide and 1/16" deep, I pulled out the armature, it was slightly coated with the dust.

Brushings are good, making good contact with the commutator, did the 180, bar to bar, and commutator to stack tests, all showing good.

Would the small defect in the permanent magnet possibly cause this much trouble?

Seems like the closest place for repairs is likely Kingson at North Country Marine, I have sent them an email if they do repairs.

Does any one on here know of someone who makes repairs to trolling motors, this is now way over my head at this point...I want my trolling motor back...

Thanks.

Fishingfan.

[smitty55]

I can't see the magnet being like that cause the unit to not run at all. Also if the brushes are good and the commutator looks good and tests ok then I can't see that being the fault either. The one test I can see being done is to do a megger (insulation resistance) check on the windings to see if they break down under load. Not likely you have a tester though. Some of the older analog voltmeters did put out a pretty high voltage on the Rx1000 scale so it could be used as a tester of sorts.

One quick thought came to me though. I imagine that there must be a battery in the remote control. If it was dead nothing would work. That happened to me recently in my ceiling fan. I replaced it with a new cr2032 and nothing. So I took it apart further for a better look and when reassembling I noticed the battery has a bit of a sticky coating on it. So I cleaned that and the contact pad and bingo, works great again.

The one curious thing I find is that it won't turn on at all, even for the display. It's like there's an open circuit somewhere. This maybe a long shot but did you test that test switch? Also is there a schematic/wiring diagram available on their site at all? Also did you give the circuit board a good close look. Could be a cold solder joint somewhere.

Good luck

[fishingfan]

The one test I can see being done is to do a megger (insulation resistance) check on the windings to see if they break down under load

Hey, thanks for some more tips, yeah, I cannot do this test, don't have the equipment.

Remote battery is good, I always keep a spare in my tackle box, fuses as well...

this maybe a long shot but did you test that test switch? Also is there a schematic/wiring diagram available on their site at all? Also did you give the circuit board a good close look. Could be a cold solder joint somewhere.

I have not done this yet, maybe my next steps while trying to figure out where I can bring it.

Thanks for the input again, I really appreciate it!



Fishingfan

[pasquini]

You said the plug and receptacle are new. I would check the wiring connections on both sides to make sure you have a complete circuit. My plug and receptacle (Marinco) have 3 prongs but only 2 wires from the batteries (2 in series) and 2 from my 24v Minn Kota PD. I have never had the plug or receptacle apart but I am assuming each male spade on the plug has a separate wire terminal and corresponds to a related female slot on the receptacle. Mismatching the connections would give you an open circuits resulting in the battery level not registering.

If your plug and receptacle are only 2 prong, check your polarity.

Good luck with the trouble shooting

[fishingfan]

You said the plug and receptacle are new. I would check the wiring connections on both sides to make sure you have a complete circuit. My plug and receptacle (Marinco) have 3 prongs but only 2 wires from the batteries (2 in series) and 2 from my 24v Minn Kota PD. I have never had the plug or receptacle apart but I am assuming each male spade on the plug has a separate wire terminal and corresponds to a related female slot on the receptacle. Mismatching the connections would give you an open circuits resulting in the battery level not registering.

If your plug and receptacle are only 2 prong, check your polarity.

Hey, thanks for chiming in, appreciate it.

I replaced them last year, it worked all year, but I still exposed the connections to check for any open circuits, and even re-did them with new butt joint connectors to try and rule this out. The receptacle has power, I had this issue last year with the 3-prong, so changed them out, with new.

I called Kingston (and all around here, no one does service), I have found an exact replacement for my unit at a decent cost, and local, so will pick it up today but will keep working on this one to try and fix it, or bring to Kingston when the Marinas are caught up with their backlogs and re-sell to help make up for today purchase.

Still looking for ideas though, I will be trying to look at any circuit boards in the unit next, nothing in the head unit, may be in the body of the motor mount. None of my paperwork gets into this stuff for assembly/disassembly, probably cause they don't want us to do it or open it up.

Thanks again.

Fishingfan