Well, busted up my Minn Kota today, a Maxxum 80/81. :'( :'( Broke the whole housing up top off. Does anyone know where I can get one of these for cheap, and how hard it would be to rewire through it myself, or if it would be more practical to have it done? Can you actually buy just the plastic housing also, with the direction indicator in it? Any help appreciated. Thanks
Jav
Jav,
It's not too difficult to replace both the top and bottom housing pieces. The trick is to make note of how everything is laid out in the bottom housing and use something to keep the steering cables from coming unravelled from the gear sleeve that they attach to. What I've done in the past is to loosen the foot pedal tension all of the way and then use a zip tie or some electrical tape around the cables near the sleeve so that they remain in the correct position when I replace the gears. This prevents me from having to re-adjust the foot pedal when I put everything back together. It's easiest to perform re-assembly when the trolling motor is in the deployed position.
Once you remove the top housing, just disconnect the positive and negative coming from the motor shaft, unscrew the lower housing from the shaft and remove all of the parts. Then replace the pieces back in the new lower housing, reattach to the shaft, and make a quick check that the pedal position and direction of the motor head are correct. If not, you can lift off the gear sleeve and turn it and replace untill the alignment is correct. Next tighten up your foot pedal tension and finally replace the top housing.
I'm sure you can get the parts from a local Minnkota service center, which you can find on their website (http://www.minnkotamotors.com/support/index.asp), but I've ordered parts in the past from Foster's Trolling Motors (http://www.trollnmotors.com/) in LA and have gotten the parts I needed quickly. You can call them at (504) 328-2877.
Hope that helps,
Jon
Hey Hermann,
As you know I had just had my Minn Kota up to Tom Soltow in Kingsley. If you decide to have someone do it he may be a good one to call and then on your way up to Leelanau you can hook up with him. He may be good to call just to get some additional info. although it sounds like Slipkey gave you some good pointers. Soltow's number is in the blog on the teardropbass.com web page. Look up the date for that Thursday before you guys came up.
Good Luck,
Dan
Thanks Dan, and I will call him for any pointers. And Slipkey, I am going to try to do it myself, so thanks for the info. I am going to call me some dealers right now so that I can get this problem taken care of ASAP.
Jav