1999 Johnson Bow Mount Trolling Motor - 12 or 24 Volts?

[LeftyF]

Hi all - hoping someone here may have an idea on this one. I bought a 1999 Sunbird 190 Fish & Ski about 2 years ago that came with a (presumably) 1999 Johnson bow mount trolling motor with a 3 pin round connector (2 red, 1 black) at the bow and one red, one orange and one ground wire in the battery box with 2 battery trays and a loose black wire that I presume is to tie the 2 batteries together in either series or parallel. I have the manual that came with the trolling motor but it is not at all clear how to determine if this is a 12 or 24 V motor, and I can't find a model # on the motor, only some patent #s stamped on the bottom. I've been using it as a 12V for now and it does ok, but it's a bit anemic with any wind so if I can use it as a 24V it would be preferable - I just don't want to risk frying it to find out!

Here is a picture of the motor:

I'll get some better shots later Today if it's helpful

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

 

[Silvertip]

Re: 1999 Johnson Bow Mount Trolling Motor - 12 or 24 Volts?

It's very likely a 12 AND 24 volt motor if it has three wires in the plug and three wires in the battery well. If were either a 12V only or 24V only motor it would only have two wires in the plug there would be no need for three wires from the battery well.

Here is the wiring diagram for that type of system. Red to Black = 24V, Orange to Black = 12V. Somewhere, either on the motor foot control or at the bow panel there should be a 12/24 selector switch.

 

[LeftyF]

Re: 1999 Johnson Bow Mount Trolling Motor - 12 or 24 Volts?

Thanks! You are exactly right. After re-reading the manual a few times I finally found a reference to the plate that has the Model / Serial # on it, which is on the side of the foot control (can't believe I didn't see that!). Once I found that I found that it's a model BFX4P and indeed a 24V motor (no 12/24 switch, just a variable speed control on the pedal). If it had a voltage selector switch that would have been my tipoff. I wired it just as you outlined above with the fish finder wired to battery # 2 pos / deg and it all works great. Tons of thrust now! Can't believe I went this long without having full power on the motor, but I had a lot of other things to sort out on the boat wiring wise so this is the last issue solved. For anyone else that's trying to sort this out with this or another Johnson motor of the same era, Here's a chart of each of the models and their capabilities. Again, note that the model and serial # are on the side of the foot control:

To get more of the manual including the features chart, wiring diagrams, maintainance details etc download this file:

http://home.earthlink.net/~fredclrk/Images/manual.zip

Thanks for the assist and hope this helps someone else