Problems with trolling motor

Hi all. I have a foot controlled trolling motor that is giving me some issues (Minn Kota Maxxum). While in use sometimes it will stop working and when I press the button to make it go or put it in continuous mode there is a crackling noise coming from the foot pedal. When this happens I try and make it work again by changing the speed, lifting the unit out of the bracket and then dropping it back in,turning it on and off, and jiggling/moving the foot pedal/cable around. So far every time it has started working again properly after doing some combination of these things. Also, once while it was working the metal loop on the positive battery terminal got very hot and the rubber around the wire started to melt. There are two things I can think of that may or may not be causing the issue one is that the motor does not completely lock into the mounting bracket when in the deployed mode but does come very close, the other is that I didn't use any kind of nut/wingnut to attach the battery cables to the battery terminal. Thanks for any advice/info.

sounds like a short...better get that checked out, could be dangerous.

your hear a buzzing noise from the pedal it sounds like a short i would check all the connections before you hit the water again you may be damaging your motor by using it with out getting it repaired

You definately need to use a nut to attach the ring terminal to the battery. Loose connections generate heat thus the melted rubber and sparks can be dangerous - hydrogen gas from a battery is highly exposive.

I'd bet you have a loose connection or a bad switch in the pedal.

sf