Minn Kota suddenly started making Noise

[clay_wallace]

I was out on the lake yesterday afternoon fishing and all of a sudden my trolling motor just started making soime terrible grinding sound. When the trolling motor is out of the water you can't hear it, only when it is submerged.
The trolliong motor in question is an early 2000's with 74 pounds of thrust. Does anyone have any suggestions.

 

[Barnacle_Bill]

Re: Minn Kota suddenly started making Noise

First thing to check is take the prop off and see if there is any fishing line wrapped around it.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Minn Kota suddenly started making Noise

After the inspection for fish line, install the prop again and turn the prop by hand. The prop should have a slight jerkiness as each pole is passed. If the motor appears tight, there is a bad bearing at the prop end or commutator end. It is also possible that one or more magnets have come loose. They can be epoxied back into position but total motor disassembly is required. That's also true for most internal repairs.

 

[clay_wallace]

Re: Minn Kota suddenly started making Noise

I took the prop off and found a small amount, maybe a foot, of fishing line, but it was old and appeared to have been in there for several seasons. I then noticed that the Pin in the shaft that the prop rides on was bent, and this had caused the groove in the prop it self to distort. I also took opened up the foot and made sure that both of the magnets were still in place and they were, the only thing i noticed was a few small pieaces of broken magnet, but nopt much at all. So i went and bought a new prop and drive pin and installed them that afternoon. I then went out on the lake and the trolling motor ran fine and sounded fine for about 30 mins, and then the sound came back. I checked to see if the shaft was bent, and if it is then it is less then a thousanth off, and i didnt thjink that would be enough to cause this noise. WHAT DO I DO NOW....NOT BEING ABLE TO BE ON THE LAKE IS KILLING ME!!!!!!

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Minn Kota suddenly started making Noise

Are you sure it's not just motor noise being transmitted up the shaft and is being amplified by contacting something on the boat.

 

[clay_wallace]

Re: Minn Kota suddenly started making Noise

After reading you last post I did a little more inspecting on the trolling motor and found that half way up the shaft that connects the foot to the top housing part was not 100%. Right where the shafts two pieces connect it was really loose. Could this be the problem, and if so how do i fix it

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Minn Kota suddenly started making Noise

What model are we talking about. I'm not aware of any two-piece shafts but that doesn't mean they don't exist.

 

[clay_wallace]

Re: Minn Kota suddenly started making Noise

Its a maxxum 74Lbs thrust. Im talking about the steering shaft that goes down into the water it is two peices.

 

[clay_wallace]

Re: Minn Kota suddenly started making Noise

I have the schematic for my trolling motor i can send u and show u where im talking abouit if my descripion is a little confusing....

 

[clay_wallace]

Re: Minn Kota suddenly started making Noise

Please help....BUMP

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Minn Kota suddenly started making Noise

I understand what you are talking about but I don't consider that a two piece shaft. The shaft merely rotates within the head unit. I doubt any looseness in that joint would cause a continuous noise. Once the motor was moving the boat it would be pushing the shaft forward hence removing any slack. When you let up on the go button and the motor stops, you might hear a slight clunk but I certainly wouldn't worry about that. But then I can't see your motor so I have no idea how severe the wear is or even if that's where the noise is coming from. You haven't described the noise so is it a clunk, vibration, constant, intermittent, occurs when you start the motor and then quits only to make the noise again when you let up on the pedal.

 

[clay_wallace]

Re: Minn Kota suddenly started making Noise

Well I finally stumbled onto the problem. After a week of trying different things to stop the noise I finally just gave up and decided I'd just fish with the noise. After about a half hour of fishing with the noisey grinding sound the trolling motor finally lost power completely. After getting it back to the house I grabbed my multimeter and tracked down where it was loosing its juice. It turned out to be the black piece that the trolling motor plugged into. This was the piece that took the juice from the two seperate 12 volt batterys and put them in series to make it strait 24. After bypassing this and wiring it up in series myself the moter worked fine and was silent again. Evidently that piece was going bad and was going bad for a little while and was causing the voltage to fluctuate and that was evidently making the motor do something funny...vibrate or contiuaously start and stop or something...im really not sure what....but its good as new now. Thanks for all the suggestions though...
Clay Wallace