Battery Condition lights on minnkota maxxum

[verlund]

Can anyone help me with a problem I am having with my trolling motor or wiring? I have a 99 Lund Prov 1775 (tiller) with a minnkota maxxum (52lb) transom trolling motor. I am having either a problem with the battery condition lights on the face of the trolling motor or a wiring problem. My on-board charger says my trolling motor battery is fully charged. The battery is a Dual Pro 3100 series (9 mo's old). However, the battery condition light on the trolling motor face says to 'recharge'. Not sure where the problem lies. I tried hooking up an outside charger to the battery as well and it also says it is fully charged. I can tell when I turn on the trolling motor that it does not have full power.

Can anybody steer me in a direction. I am lost on this one.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Steve

[perchjerker]

You will need a voltmeter (preferably digital) to troubleshoot this. Check to see if you have the same voltage at your trolling motor plug socket that you have at the battery. You should have about 12.6v for a fully charged battery. If you have less at the battery, its not charged up all the way. If you do, check at the socket. If its less, then you have a voltage drop someplace in the circuit. May be just a bad connection at ther battery or at the socket where the wires attach. Check that first since its the easiest and most troublesome area.

If you cant find anything and the voltage is low at the socket, then take one end of the meter and connect it to the pos battery terminal and the other test lead to the pos connection in the socket. You might need a jumper wire on the test leasd to reach. You should have a reading of 0 volts there. If you have anything else, then you have a problem in that wire. All a volt meter does is read the difference voltage at the 2 leads. So if its 0, that means there is no difference, hence no voltage drop. If it reads for example, 2 volts, that means you have a difference of 2 volts between the 2 points. Thats why it reads 12v between the battery posts. Since there is a difference in 12v between the 2 posts.

If the pos wire checks out, do the same thing on the neg side of the circuit. You could also check this with the ohm meter, but the voltage drop check is usually more accurate on something like this.

[verlund]

thanks perchjerker. I will give this a try. I do have access to a digital voltmeter. I knew my brother-in-law would come in handy one day. I am printing your reply and will walk thru the procedures your listed. I hope its something simple. I really appreciate your help.

Thanks
Steve

[perchjerker]

Sure thing. If was a betting man, I would bet one of the connections from the wires to the plug socket or the plug from the trolling motor power plug is loose. (forgot to mention that earlier)