# Trolling motor issue..."forward" goes forward and "reverse" goes forward



## soua0363

As the title states, my BPS/Motorguide transom mount 55 lbs thrust trolling motor now goes forward in reverse. I do not know what happened except if something burned out on the inside. It just happened out of the blue during a fishing trip. I have checked all the wires and everything is correct.

Has anyone had this happen to them? Is it fixable?


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## markfish

well i dont run that kind i have bow mount, but im thinking you have one with a handle that has like 5 foward speeds and 2or3 reverse.and if im close let me know but sounds like the speed switch,went out or the wireing in the head burnt up and yes everything can be fix for a price,you my be better off getting a used one on here than fixing it,i lost 1st 2nd 3rd gear on mine its at vic;s right now getting rebuilt,but to replace mine wouild be 1200.00 well good luck markfish


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## MassillonBuckeye

I think you have the battery wires reversed bud.

Motor runs backwards
Step 1. Polarity reversed to armature. Possible causes include:
A. Wired backwards
B. Brush plate in upside down
C. Magnet shell upside down (on 3 ¼&#8221; or 3 5/8&#8221; motor assemblies the marking notch should be on the
bottom towards the skeg)

If you've had the motor apart, the plate the brushes were installed on can be installed 180 degrees from where it should be. Also, connecting the two blacks together means you do not have a correct connection. The original RUN/CHARGE switch did the series to parallel connection so the batteries could both be charged using a single 12 volt charger connected to the troller plug or one of the batteries. By connecting the two blacks them you cannot possibly have both 12 and 24 volts. By the way, the run/charge switch is nothing special. Go to Radio Shack and choose from about three styles. If the system is wired the way you say, measuring orange to black or red to black should both measure 12 volts. Your motor is not wired that way in that it uses only the red/black or orange/black for 24/12 volts respectively. The motor does not use orange and red at the same time. 24 volts requires a series connection of two batteries. 12 volts requires selection of just one of the batteries, or both of them in parallel. With the black from both batteries tied together you cannot achieve series connection. 

from: http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=504404


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## bkr43050

MassillonBuckeye said:


> I think you have the battery wires reversed bud.
> 
> Motor runs backwards
> Step 1. Polarity reversed to armature. Possible causes include:
> A. Wired backwards
> B. Brush plate in upside down
> C. Magnet shell upside down (on 3 ¼ or 3 5/8 motor assemblies the marking notch should be on the
> bottom towards the skeg)


Notice that he said it goes forward all the time. Reversed polarity would reverse the direction. I don't think it is anything to do with the hookup. He also mentioned that this happened out of the clear blue during a trip. That suggests to me that something broke to some extent. I have no good input on what it may be as this is a new one for me. I am interested to hear the diagnosis though.


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## MassillonBuckeye

bkr43050 said:


> Notice that he said it goes forward all the time. Reversed polarity would reverse the direction. I don't think it is anything to do with the hookup. He also mentioned that this happened out of the clear blue during a trip. That suggests to me that something broke to some extent. I have no good input on what it may be as this is a new one for me. I am interested to hear the diagnosis though.


Ohh whoops. Yeah, I'd say a switch melted or went bad then. Some sort of fault in the control box. Sorry for being longwinded in the other posts. Hopefully that will help someone with that problem.


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## All Thumbs

i hooked mine up wrong at the battery and had the same results as you. reversed it at the battery and all was good. but yours just happened out of the blue - that is a head scratcher. i too would like to know when you find out. 

all thumbs


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## soua0363

I think I will take the control apart and see if it is something that I can fix. Hopefully, I do not mess it up more or really break it. 

I can always just turn the motor all the way around to go the opposite direction but it is a major pain in the butt.


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## crappiedude

I'm guessing it's probably a bad switch or something. If you can't figure it ouy you can always take it over to Rod's TM shop over by EF Lake. He's done good work for me.


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## MassillonBuckeye

Get yourself a test light so you can tell whats getting power and whats not.


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