*@#&* Trolling Motor

Trolling motor worked fine yesterday, but today it was as dead as it could be. The direction indicator worked and turned the motor in all directions, but the blade would not engage. When I turn the blade by hand, it appears to be a little stiff, where before you could spin it freely. I have to admit that I did get some line hung in it yesterday, but I thought I got it all out and it did work afterward. It is getting voltage because it will change direction fine, but won't run. Spoiled my whole day on the lake. Any ideas what could be wrong, or do you think I have to take it to a mechanic? BTW the water temp at Bull Shoals was up nearly 2 degrees from yesterday from 45 to 46.8, so I think another week of these temps and the action should pick up on Bull Shoals and other deep water lakes.

If it worked before you gat the line in it then I would say remove the blade and see if the line is in the seal or something.

Can you take the blade off without the special wrench?

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Originally Posted by flyflinger

Can you take the blade off without the special wrench?

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Mine comes off by removing the prop nut with a half-inch deep socket and a ratchet. Be carefull not to drop the shear pin. Any time you get fishing line behind your prop you should take the prop off to make sure you get all the line out. Besides causing extra strain on your motor and drawing excess current from your batteries fishing line can aslo damage your shaft seal, which can let water into your motor and destroy it.

My clamp mount tm has a small nut to remove prop, however this tm is a 24v, and has a big plastic nut with indentations in it for a special wrench, like a spud type wrench. I can likely get one at W.Mart or Bass Pro, but I was hoping to be able to just take it off. Nothing comes easy to the mechanacilly challenged.

Try sticking a rair of needle nose pliers in the holes this worked for me before

that is a PAIR not rair needle nose pliers. sorry for the spelling errors fat fingers

Good idea, I'll give it a try. Thanks

OK, got the nut off, and prop and inside seal is ok. I took a battery jumper box and hooked it to the tm plug and guess what, it runs. So, if the batteries are not dead, I must have a short in the recepticle. I put the charger on the batteries and it indicated they were fully charged. But, there are two batteries wired in series so the tm gets 24 v. Is there any special way to hook up the charger so both batteries charge at the same time. I thought hooking the + to the first battery and - to the second battery was the way to do it. Is that not correct. Or should I disconnect both batteries and charge them individually?

Unless you have a 2 bank charger, I believe you will have to charge each battery separately. I've recently changed to a 24v trolling motor with 70# thrust. Man, that dude will hold in the wind! I had concerns that my charger wasn't working---the indicator lights aren't working properly, but I've got 26.4 volts, so I guess I'm good to go!

Hooking the 12v charger across 24v is wrong and it likely fried your charger. You can leave the batteries hooked together but you can only charge one at a time.

NEVER fail to respect the energy of batteries wired in series. One slip of a wrench and you'll think you got struck by lightning.

You are exactly right. When I disconnected the batteries and put the charger on them this morning, they both took juice. So I guess my problem is not so bad afterall. I will charge them for a few hours and see if that fixes the problem. Now, how about gas milage. I ran for about 5 miles at 3/4 throttle and the evilrude used nearly 5 gallons of gas. Is that normal? I ran the day before at about 1/2 throttle the same distance and it used about 3 gallons. Bigggggg difference.

I have a 24V system and before I installed an onboard charger, I used a regular charger. You do not have to unhook your batteries, just charge one at a time, and be careful not to energize the system while charging. sounds like you might have a float sticking on your outboard.

I have two suggestions....
First go to an onboard charging system; in your case I would go to a three bank charger (two banks for the trolling batteries and one for the cranking). I know your "Evilrude" should be charging the battery, but, with the technology of the new chargers it ain't going to hurt to have it hooked up and "checked" when you charge your trolling batts.

Second install a fluid filler system. I bought mine from Cabellas for $75. That was the cheapest I found and I think the price is rediculous for a bunch of clear tubing and some fancy battery caps. But, My batteries are difficult to get to when checking the fluid levels and I was too lazy to pull them just to check the fluids. This device sure has saved me a lot of frustration from a dead trolling battery.

I used to suffer from a dead trolling battery frequently. These two steps has eliminated my battery delimas. Oh yea....always use distilled water too.
DP

If you have two batteries you will have to charge them seperate. It goes from 12v to 24v at the front of your boat were you plug your trolling motor in.

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Originally Posted by flyflinger

Now, how about gas milage. I ran for about 5 miles at 3/4 throttle and the evilrude used nearly 5 gallons of gas. Is that normal? I ran the day before at about 1/2 throttle the same distance and it used about 3 gallons. Bigggggg difference.

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I run a 25hp Merc 2 stroke. I can go 18-20 miles on a 6 gallon tank. Not sure what you're using, but it sounds like it sure is a gas guzzler!

My Merc 40, power trim, 1700# boat, two people used to get 2 mpg at most any planing speed. Recent addition of a high pitch SS prop raised it to 2.2 mpg and top speed 34 mph.

Trucks are red, tractors are green, and outboards are BLACK

TM problem solved. First, I took the plug apart to check for loose wires, they all were loose and incorrectly installed. So, I correctly installed the wires in the plug. Then I pulled the recepticle, and sure enough, it was wired wrong too. I corrected that, and put it back together. Charged the first tm battery and it was ok. Charged the 2nd battery and it charged for 5 hours and never would take a charge, so that tells me my 24v tm was running on 12 v. Pulled both batteries and reinstalled them in line close to the port bulkhead. Now, that made more room for my gas tank, I could actually take it out. When I got it out, I found that it had used only 3 1/2 gallons of gas over about 12 miles, so that's not so bad. Now I can see the guage when the tank is in the boat. I don't know how the former owner delt with the batteries being placed like they were and not being able to get the gas tank out. Anyhow, after a trip to Wally World and getting a new "Never Start" tm battery, I reinstalled everything and the tm turns faster than ever. Oh yeah, when I got the gas tank out, the inline OMC gas plug to the tank was loose, so part of my milage problem was there too. I really want to thank everyone for their assistance and advise. I am assuming that when I charge the tm battries individually, I do not have to disconnect the series set-up, right?