I went out yesterday and my old motorguide TM quit working.

I watched the video below and it was basically the same setup my 95 tracker has.

I used a tester light and the battery has power.
I connected the tester to the where the TM plugs in- no power
I took the plate off and tested the connector - no power.
I went to the back of the boat and connected the clip to the negative and stabbed the positive. The light came on
I connected jumper cables to a fully charged extra marine battery i have and connected jumper cables to it. Then I clipped the tester to the positive jumper cable. then i stuck the tester in the negative..no power
I tried with the the negative, no power

I am not into taking the whole wiring tubing out to find the short.

My idea is to put my extra battery into a compartment up front.
Snip the TM wires up in half
Attach marine gauge 16 to it and run it to the battery .

will that be ok to do.?
It is not a modern fancy TM. It is a Motorguide 30 that probably came with the boat in 95

If it has a breaker I would check that first.

I agree with scruboak. It sure sounds like you have a fuse blown. If not, then your solution will work fine. Be sure to put a fuse in one of the lines. Not sure how much current your TM draws, but a 20 or 30 amp fuse is probably enough. Also, I would use lower gauge than 16. maybe 10 or 12. If you have an old set of jumper cables, that wire is perfect.

I got it tracked down to the positive wire. The negative has power all the from the back to front.
The positive has power back by the battery. But not to the front. I did find a fuse by the back battery on the positive wire. but I have power back there
I am just going to run it with the other battery when I get correct gauge wire

Thx for the replies

My motor guide fails to lock down it seems to be due to the locking pin sliding out of position has this happened to anyone else and if so is there a fix