Has anyone screwed up the wiring to their deep freezer?

I managed to!
I got a little too impatient and with my "I can do this" attitude and cold beer on my mind, without any thought or research and I think I screwed up big time....
The worse part is I have two deep freezers...one larger one that I bought...and one tiny one that I found on the side of the road for FREE...
Guess which one I decided to experiment on?!...yeah, my good one.

Anyways, here's the deal...
I have a GE "Compact Chest Freezer 7". It was working like normal yesterday...
Unplugged it, took the side vent off, and took the top off. Today I decided I wasn't going to build a boxed frame to stick it in...too much time, money and it seemed easier to just flush everything up and attach all my wood trim directly to it. Well, in order to do this I decided to take the temperature control and light combo off and keep it inside by the compressor.
It seemed easy at first...I just popped the plastic frame off and was going to just it through...Except it didn't work like that...What ever the components are on the back of the controls, they were too wide to wide to fit through the slot. Instead of widening the opening, I thought It would be easier just to disconnect and reconnect all the wiring. I managed to remove the two ground wires, and the black and white wire clips going into the compressor. I pulled the plug through that was connected to it. The last thing that I failed to notice was the wire going into what I'm thinking is the temperature probe. There wasn't anything to remove as far as a fitting or bolt, so I just thought...why not cut it and splice it together later. After I cut it, I realized this wire is hollow, so it's probably not a normal wire. I pulled it through and positioned it inside. I stripped it back but I didn't have any wire nuts on hand so I just temporarily taped it together. I plugged the two clips in as well as I could remember and screwed the grounds back in. Now the momment of truth...I plugged it in and...NOTHING! I've tried switching the clips from different positions, messing with the temp dial, reseting my gfi, but there isn't even a light on. This would tell me it would have to be something wrong with the clips going to the power cord, right? I think I have them in the right place, but maybe they aren't facing the right way... Does anyone see or think of anything that comes to mind or know of any advice forums for freezers? I'm hoping it's just something I'm over looking again that is so simple. Sorry for the novel, but it's really stressing me out and I'm kicking myself in the ass for not thinking this one through.
Cheers

Um....that "hollow wire" was probably a capillary tube leading to the bulb buried inside the space between the hump and the liner.

Even assuming you could obtain a complete replacement thermostat, I have no idea how you go about extracting the old bulb and inserting a new one.

But all is not lost, and you have choices: you can just take the two control wires in/out of the thermostat and short them together, then plug the line cord into an external controller, put the controller's probe inside the freezer, and let the controller run everything.

Alternatively, you can wire most external controllers to directly replace the thermostat function - actually route the in/out wires that used to go to the OEM thermostat through the controller's relay. But frankly that's not going to accomplish anything more than just controlling via the line cord.

In any case, the original thermostat has gone to Keezer Heaven. If you want to verify that the rest of the wiring is intact, short the two thermostat wires together and the compressor should light up...

Cheers!

The hollow tube you cut is probably the phial/capillary, which is filled with a gas that expands and contracts with temperature changes, which throws the switch in the thermostat on and off. With the tube cut, the gas has escaped, and the thermostat will not function. I'm guessing you plan on using an external temp controller of some sort? If so, you should be able to bypass the thermostat by connecting the two sides of the switched wire together, and rely on the external controller for temp control.

Thanks for your help!
I was planning on using a Johnson controller that is just plug and play...which has a probe.
I didn't want to mess with love controllers that you have to wire in.
Is there any how to's or tutorials on bypassing or shorting them together?
Cheers!

Thanks for everyone's help!
You've managed to save my Keezer.
I just cut out the thermostat and wired the plug straight to the compressor....simple.
Cheers!