Re: routing transducer cable on powerdrive trolling motor
i have a minnkota 70 with autopilot and would like to mount a transducer to the bottom of the motor.problem is how do i run my wire with the motor slidind up and down the mount to deploy it and also it turning around while steering? thanks for any info!!
I ran into the same problem just the other day. There are several suggestions on the forum and I even tried a few, but they all seemed a little finicky and there always ended up being a loose cable that could get snagged or the motor could spin until it broke.
I didn't want to worry about which direction my motor spun last while I was fishing, so I figured I would route it up the shaft. After a little exploring it was actually quite easy and with the help of a buddy we did it in about 30 min.
I do have pictures, but not sure how to load them up here yet.
Be warned, I am sure this would present a warranty problem for both the PD and the fish finder.
First, cut off the end of the transducer cable with the connector on it that actually goes into the fish finder. Scary, I know. make sure you leave plenty of cable to work with, I left several feet that I could trim later.
Unscrew the head of the powerdrive. It is very easy, one or two screws. You may want to open the head unit at this time also, as you will need to fish the transducer cable into the head and out the grommet at the bottom.
Next carefully drill a small pilot hole at the base of the shaft and then step it up a size to a drill bit slightly larger than the transducer cable. I drilled it at a slight angle upward to ease with fishing the cable. The shaft is composite so it is easy to drill and will produce a small powdery mound. Be careful when you get through to the end that you don't let the drill cut into the wires for the motor.
At this point, all the hard work is done.
Simply fish the transducer wire up through the hole, I attached my transducer to the motor at this point to make sure the cable length was right, and have a friend pull it out the top of the shaft. The cable slid up into the shaft very easily and once I felt a little resistance it was at the top.
You will then need to pull it into the motor head unit, but don't reassemble the two halves yet. We found it easiest to put the bottom half on first so we could manipulate the wires as we put the bolt through the shaft.
Next feed the transducer wire down through the grommet in the base of the head unit, and reassemble head unit.
Run transducer wire down center of coiled cable to the base of motor and then re-crimp the connector on. What is nice is now you can also cut the cable to length so you don't have a huge coil of cable there. I actually ran the cable into the boat where I had my other cables running at the base of the motor and back out so the crimp connection was actually hidden inside the hull.
Next where you drilled the shaft slide the cable back a little at the point of the shaft that you put it in and goop on some silicon, then slide the cable back into the hole and silicon around the outside of the cable also. Just for good measure, after the silicon "dried" I actually then put marine epoxy around the cable also just to make sure no water would leak in there.
I also made sure to use 2 cable clamps around the motor, one for the transducer and one for the cable to prevent undo movement and stress on the cable that could cause an eventual leak at the insertion point.
Sounds like a lot of steps, but it really was quite easy, looks super clean and works perfectly. If you want pics, let me know and I will try to post them. Honestly, it only took about 30 min and I am super stoked with how it turned out. Much better than the other method I tried of running the cable up through the sliding handle part.
