I have a 24 V trolling system that is connected to two separate batteries with four wires, each pair of wires carries 12 V to the receptacle. The wires are red and black and orange and black and white. The plug at the trolling motor has four prongs. The problem I have found is only one pair of wires is taking 12 V to the receptacle the other pair is not. The only explanation is the wire is broken somewhere underneath the floor because I have voltage to where it enters the floor but not where it comes back out to the trolling motor. My question is can I convert from a four wire system to a two wire system by connecting the batteries in series. If this is possible do I need to change plug and receptacle? What about the accessories I currently have running off of those batteries will they need to be removed or is there a way to wire those also?
If you have four wires at the plus most likely 2 should be grounds, 1 should be 12VDC and the other should be the 24VDC. Check to make sure your wiring is correct at the batteries. That would be the only way you have 2 grounds and 2 12VDC wires vice one being 24VDC. Google images has good pictures of 24VDC trolling motor wiring. Go to the owner’s manual of the trolling motor and see how they say to wire the plug before playing with the wiring.
As for the other accessories you have running off those batteries, I would look at putting in a buss bar and connect the other accessories to that. I had an issue where the dealer did a bad job (IMO) hooking up my electronics by not using the buss bar and linking them into the switches causing me radio failures (low voltage) when I keyed the radio.
A wise man once said “Do as I say not as I do” Good advice when I tell you that.
Yep, you only need 2 wires going to the plug. One from the positive side of one battery and one from the negative side of the other. Then you need one short wire running from the negative side of the first battery to the positive side of the second. The way you have it now sounds like they are in parallel, meaning you will only get 12v out.