A friend kicked his outboard into high gear after he was done fishing without checking his trolling motor, resulting in the motor being broken off his boat because it was still down. The trolling motor spent 3-4 weeks at the bottom of the lake before I went out with him to the area with my underwater camera, actually finding it. Believe it or not, he fixed the bracket, put new ends on the power leads, and it worked perfectly! This was 4-5 years ago.
Fast forward to now. His trolling motor started making a grinding noise, so he bought another. He generously gave his Vector 55 to me in the hope that I can fix it. (It'd certainly be a big upgrade over my Endura.) When I hooked the motor up to a battery and turned it on, nothing happened.
Looking online, it seems like this symptom could be caused by worn brushes. I started taking it apart and found evidence of small amounts of water in the lower unit. Using a multimeter, I confirmed that there is voltage making it to the brushes, but the motor does nothing.
I cleaned up all of the corrosion and moisture, but was unable to get the armature out of the brush holder; they seem to be one. I was able to get the brush holder out by tilting the armature to the side and sneaking in with a Torx #20 driver, just barely being able to get out the two bolts holding it in. I put the brush holder in my bench vise and pulled as hard as I dared for fear of breaking the plastic holder, but it didn't budge. (The end of the armature is covered by the plastic brush holder, so a wheel puller wouldn't even work.)
Not being able to get at the end of the armature, I simply cleaned inside of the shroud and the brushes with both a toothbrush & compressed air, then reassembled. The motor ran, but sounded like it was grinding in the lower end & also felt very rough when in operation. My guess is that water got inside the bearing and that is where the roughness is coming from. It's probably also why I'm unable to remove the armature, as the two are likely corroded together.
I did find one thread discussing a similar problem on an Endura, but there wasn't much of a solution in the thread.
Does anyone know how to get the armature apart from the brush holder on a Minn Kota Vector 55 trolling motor in this situation?
Fast forward to now. His trolling motor started making a grinding noise, so he bought another. He generously gave his Vector 55 to me in the hope that I can fix it. (It'd certainly be a big upgrade over my Endura.) When I hooked the motor up to a battery and turned it on, nothing happened.
Looking online, it seems like this symptom could be caused by worn brushes. I started taking it apart and found evidence of small amounts of water in the lower unit. Using a multimeter, I confirmed that there is voltage making it to the brushes, but the motor does nothing.
I cleaned up all of the corrosion and moisture, but was unable to get the armature out of the brush holder; they seem to be one. I was able to get the brush holder out by tilting the armature to the side and sneaking in with a Torx #20 driver, just barely being able to get out the two bolts holding it in. I put the brush holder in my bench vise and pulled as hard as I dared for fear of breaking the plastic holder, but it didn't budge. (The end of the armature is covered by the plastic brush holder, so a wheel puller wouldn't even work.)
Not being able to get at the end of the armature, I simply cleaned inside of the shroud and the brushes with both a toothbrush & compressed air, then reassembled. The motor ran, but sounded like it was grinding in the lower end & also felt very rough when in operation. My guess is that water got inside the bearing and that is where the roughness is coming from. It's probably also why I'm unable to remove the armature, as the two are likely corroded together.
I did find one thread discussing a similar problem on an Endura, but there wasn't much of a solution in the thread.
Does anyone know how to get the armature apart from the brush holder on a Minn Kota Vector 55 trolling motor in this situation?
