Posts: 311
Location: Ontario | Before you buy or replace anything, pull the prop and check the shaft for fishing line. It'll melt the seals, letting water get into the armature of the lower unit, it'll rust and the motor will loose most of it's performance. You pick up line all over the place and never see it. I've never gotten anything (other than weeds sometimes) in my prop and had the same issue as you last spring. I was looking at $800 for a new Terrova but went to an authorized Minn Kota guy close to where I live. The prop shaft was plastered with mono, braid and even some kind of plastic string. The seal was melted into a gob of plastic and the guts inside the lwr unit were all rusted from water damage. I sat there and watched while the guy rebuilt the entire electrical assembly (trolling motors only have a couple main parts, easy to swap out, very surprising) in less than 25 minutes. Mine works good as new now. The new guts costed less than a hundred bucks. The repair shop stocked all the parts and I wound up saving over $700. They are not tough to rebuild. Like I said, the guy did it with a few screwdrivers and a set of pliers right in front of me, good as new. If fishing line is what kills lower units, sand is what kills digital foot pedals. In addition to the prop/power issue, I couldn't make a left turn with mine. He took the pedal apart and showed me where sand had landed on a contact and corroded it, right where the plastic finger depresses the switch. The guy threw in a new-in-box pedal for me also. Total investment in time was less than an hour and under $200. Versus the alternative, I left the shop pretty happy. I guess the lesson I learned is that nothing's really 'fatal' with my Minn Kota, issues are easy to diagnose and the parts can be swapped out if/when the go bad. I thibnk nip-tuck surgeons do the same thing with Cher and Joan Rivers...part breaks down, just pull the old ones out and add a new one. Easy maintenance. She still runs excellent, hope it works out for you. |
