998 losing power

**callen** · 10-04-2013, 05:47 AM

Mine did the same an it was a broken ground wire in the power cord. In the garage I turned the unit on and started at the connection on the unit bending the power cord till the unit shut off. The break was inches from the fuse panel.

**hays47** · 10-04-2013, 01:15 PM

As a former troubleshooter for many a DC circuit runs. GENERALLY speaking if you have intermittent power and motion is involved it shouts bad or weak connection. Corrosion of any kind at terminal ends can also cause power problems.

Troubleshooting anything is rapidly becoming a lost art in our throw away society. Over the years I have saved many a unit from the trashpile with simple fixes. My cousin was going to throw away one that had caused him numerous headaches.. The " trouble " with that fish finder was a corroded fuse.

Batteries that are just starting to go bad can cause odd problems also. Lead acid batteries have an expected usable life cycle of 5 years. That is the expected by abusing your batteries , overcharging or overheated or subjecting to freezing weather, over long periods of time can shorten this. Taking extremely good care of your batts can lengthen its life cycle. No guarantee but it certainly won't hurt.

Learn how to load test your batteries and maintain them will limit your problems out on the water. If you take good care of your connections and your batts you will enjoy your modern electronics more.
One more piece of advice. Get a good multimeter and learn how to use it. Don't have to break the bank here. They do have extremely expensive ones. But one in about the 39-69 range ought to be just fine.

**Barnacle Bill** · 10-04-2013, 02:10 PM

And once you have a meter learn how to do a voltage drop test. There is no better way for locating bad connections or wiring.

You said it gets power from a separate battery. How does that battery get charged?

**bowhunter1** · 10-05-2013, 04:53 AM

Power cable has a inline fuse on it and is hooked to the trolling motor battery... I know it has nothing to do with the trolling motor because that wasn't running when it would shut off. I checked the connections today and they were kind of loose but I'm not ruling that as the cause just yet... I have a on board charger. One bank goes to the trolling motor battery and the the other goes to the starter battery. I also checked the inline fuse and all was ok with that

**chucky** · 10-05-2013, 06:01 AM

You might check to make sure the battery is not moving. If running on rough waters is causing it to shut down, then there may be something hitting the post causing you to kick the power off.

Do a battery test. Borrow a good battery, one of your cars or friends, or you could buy another battery. After the test if it still does it then take the new one back. Hook the depth finder to the borrowed battery and run down the lake a few times. If it clears up then you need a new battery. If it doesn't, then there is a short in the wiring somewhere. Good luck.

Thread: 998 losing power

Thread Tools

Display

Posting Permissions