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Posts: 338
| I have a 2004 model Minnkota Maxxum Pro 80 24 volt trolling motor. I bought it used nearly two months ago and got to use it for the first time this weekend. Worked fine on Saturday, but today it started acting up. It will work fine and all of a sudden will not work at all. ALL battery connections are secure. I looked at it this evening when I got home and discovered through trial and error that when the foot pedal switch is turned on CON (did this to check for any loose wires etc. )and the motor will not run, all I have to do is bump the top of the trolling motor with my hand and it kicks on and runs fine. Then I turn it on and off a few times and it will go back to not working again. Bump it and it starts working again. Seems like there is something loose in the top of the trolling motor(TOP meaning where the steering cable, directional button and so forth are housed.) Not the lower unit .Anyone on this site have any idea what it might be. Also, it looks pretty easy, but how in the heck do I get the top of the housing off? I tried to undo the four screws underneath, but the top of the housing didn't seem to loosen up at all. I am afraid to mess with it too much as I will get aggravated and who knows what will get brokenLOL!!!! Thanks for any help.
Roger |
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Posts: 2323
Location: Stevens Point, WI | Did you check your plug? I have a Marinco plug and know that if the screws aren't tight on the wires, it will do exactly what your talking about, work sometimes and then won't work. I have a feeling it's in your wiring somewhere, not your pedal. I could be wrong, but those trolling motors are dang near bulletproof. |
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Posts: 338
| Yes I checked the plug. Everything is secure. I really don't think it is in the foot pedal either. Everything indicates to me that there is something loose in the top housing on the motor. Any other ideas? Thanks for any help.
Roger |
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| There are four srews that hold the head toghether. Take it off and have a look. Go from there. Really not much to those. |
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Posts: 338
| Took the housing off and no visible sign of any loose connections. I'll look at it more tomorrow evening after work. Thanks for any and all help.
Roger
Edited by Rattlin RB 3/8/2009 9:55 PM
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Posts: 82
Location: Central WI | I've never had mine apart, but is there something a simple as a red and black wire in the head you could check with a voltmeter to see if the wires have power? If so, maybe check when it's dead and then "bump" motor until it works and test again. From there, if they then had power, I would imagine you could trace the wires back to find out what's going on.
Not sure, but worth a try?
Chris |
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Posts: 131
| if the 2 wires[red and black] in the "head" of the motor are making good contact then i think you probably have a bad armature.we have seen several of the early max 80's with this problem.[the more current models don't have this problem]for some reason one or more lobes on the armature burn out.if one of these damaged lobes happens to stop in a position where it is making contact with one of the 2 brushes in the lower unit it will not start when power is applied.however simply bumping the motor can move the armature enough to make contact and get the motor running.once it's running it glides past the bad lobes but won't develope full thrust.you need to get your motor into a minnkota service center to have your armature tested.it may or may not be under warranty.cost to repair it should be around $100 if not covered under warranty. |
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Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | I had a Maxxum that did something like this. I bought it off Ebay so I had no warranty to take it in for work, so I dug into it myself.
What I found that a couple of the nodes/lobes on the armature were't making a connection. Here's what I did to diagnose/fix it.
1.) Took a voltmeter and tested each lobe on the armature. Put one lead of the meter on one lobe, and check every lobe with the other lead on each other lobe. Set the volt meter to ohms. If a lobe read 1 instead of 0, that lobe was "bad."
2.) When I found a "bad" lobe, I lightly (LIGHTLY) tapped on the part of the lobe with the copper wire under it. The copper wire is part of the big mass of wrapped copper wires. There must have been a slight gap between the little tab on the lobe and the copper wire under it. Either that or there was a tiny amount of corrosion between them that tapping knocked off.
This is all it took to get my motor working right. Check every single lobe, and after you fix them, check them again. It isn't too bad taking the motor out on these, but it's enough of a pain that you want to do it as few times as possible - hopefully once.
This may or may not be the problem. If it is, it should be easy enough to fix. While you have it out, it might not be a bad idea to steel wool or sand the armature with fine grit sand paper.
One other thing that happened to my Maxxum was one of the leads to the motor (only a + and - lead) actually BROKE off from the terminal end. How this happens while trailering or running across a smooth lake that day is beyond me, but it happened. Anyway, unless there is truly something wrong with your motor, it should be fairly easy to see once you get the motor out of it. About all they take to run is a current flow from the + and - wires.
Ok yeah, mark the top of the motor so you remember which way it goes. Messed that up once and the motor was in reverse when I got on the lake! Luckily I have enough tools to switch it around at the landing.
Good luck.
curleytail
Edited by curleytail 3/9/2009 2:24 PM
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Posts: 338
| Thanks so much everyone for the helpful replies. I will be taking ther motor to a Minn Kota service centere in the near future. If I tried to look at it myself, I would end up doing more damage than good LOL.
Thanks again,
Roger |
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Minnkota Maxxum 80 Pro ?