Power-Pole to Raptor

I called Skeetbum the other day to let him know his project will be a little longer because of this boat. The Power-Pole was almost ripped off the boat. Here I'm replacing it with a Minn-Kota Raptor 10ft.

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The Ram shaft is folded over. one of the hydraulic connections on the Ram has punched thru the Power-Pole Blade Body, and the Spike was ripped out of it's socket too. I can fix a lot of things but just read this Blade it's Last Rites.

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For those wondering the Raptor base bolted right to the Power-Pole Jackplate Mount Base.

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Those black grommets you see are pre-installed by Minn-Kota. They want you to drill holes for them to fit into 1 inch apart. I had no problem with that except I already had two holes that I wasn't just plugging with a bolt or something. I cut the two 3/4in holes as far apart as I could and still take in the original Power-Pole Hydraulic Line holes. So after installing the first grommet whole I used a Dremel tool with a new sanding drum to cut a nice fitting radius in the second grommet. I got a real good fit and took care of the old holes at the same time.

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I had some stretched out Spiral Wrap so I loosely wrapped the Hydraulic Hoses together.

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After installing the Hydraulic Pump Mounts I installed the Pump and hooked up the hoses. The extra hose was rolled up best I could and tie wrapped securely. Once the wires was hooked up I filled the reservoir with oil and bled it as good as can be done till the boat is in deep enough water to finish bleeding.

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I'm really impressed with the quality of manufacture with this Raptor. It is really well built.

The other problem with this boat was the Jackplate quit working. Turns out the wiring for it had been wet so many times with Saltwater it was eaten up.

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The original Rigging on this boat had this realy block inside the engine cowl but when the 300 was installed the dealer screwed the relay block down to a stringer. It was always getting wet.

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I replace these SeaStar Jackplate Relay blocks with CMC Twin Relay Jackplate Harnesses. I like these much better, built for more Amps, larger connection contact surfaces, and I can tie wrap the relays high up and out of the way. Once this was wired up everything works once again.