Red Dot Heater Troubleshooting

[Squidward]

My Red Dot heater was broken when I bought the boat, almost 2 years ago. Wasn't long before I pulled the switch and discovered there was a spade connector on the middle terminal, but no wire. It had apparently pulled out.

Wasn't high priority, and I didn't feel like fishing for the lost wire, so I let it slide. Today I finally pulled off the AC control panel and found what I believe was the missing wire. Strangely, the end wasn't stripped. But it was bound together with the switch's other 2 wires with a piece of electrical tape, so you'd think that's the one, right? I crimped on a spade connector and plugged it into the switch to test.

Still nothing.

I traced the path of that wire (a pinkish red one) with my endoscope, and I'm 80% sure it's screwed into an un-fused block. I also pulled the heater to check connections, and it looks reasonably good. The ground connection on the side looked largely free of corrosion, and the orange and red positive wires split off into each of the motors (2 wires per motor).

Is there anything I'm missing, such as a thermostat or something that would prevent the heater from working?

Failing that, I think my next step is to run a new positive wire that I'm 100% certain of. How often do these heaters fail anyway? Thanks.

 

[Bmarler]

Red dots are super simple devices, ground to the motor, hot to the switch, out of the switch to the motor. Two switch outputs may indicate two speeds for the motor. Use your volt meter to verify power at the switch and that the switch is actually passing that voltage through to the output.
Usually no thermo device on the motor, but certain models might have something. Doubt it though.