Odd trolling motor performance

[Parker]

Hi,

I have a 70 lbs thrust Minnkota Powerdrive trolling motor with copilot. Last week the trolling motor would not turn on occassion when the foor pedal was depressed. It would respond perfectly when using the copilot. It did not happen all the time, so I took the foot pedal apart and cleaned it and tested it. Same problem. led me to believe the foot pedal was bad. Not the first time this has happened so I went and purchased a new foot pedal. After plugging in the new foot pedal I had the exact same problem. This led me to believe I had an issue with the contacts between the foot pedal and the trolling motor. I cleaned the male connections as best I could. Same problem. It will work great for a while (10 minutes) then stop working all together or only turn left.

Also, the motherboard is less than a year old. It was replaced by an authorized minnkota repair shop in the metro after the boat came too close to a lightning strike. The lightning fried the motherboard.

Any guess as to what's wrong?

[Hookmaster]

The only time mine acted up was solved by cleaning the foot pedal and the wire contacts.

[CraigM]

I'm having a similar issue on an 80 power drive. Replaced the mother board about a year ago. Worked great until two weeks ago, then intermittently won't turn left with either the foot pedal or the remote. Last week it decided it would not turn left at all. However, with the auto pilot engaged, it will make corrections to the left. Fully charged batteries don't make any difference. Hopefully somebody has an answer.

[BoxMN]

I bet the water in your batts was low... or it was only running on one battery (i.e. fuse to charger from one batt was blown...)

[OnAFly]

It's a powerdrive, they have those issues. Mine likes to turn on when it wants, not necessarily when I want. Now the right turn I have to press really hard to get to work.

Talking to an engineer from Minnkota a few years back, he said the switches they used in the foot pedals were not a good switch for what they were being used for, so they tended to have problems.

[Parker]

Batteries are brand new Insterstate 29's. Literally less than a month old. The trolling motor worked fine with the new batteries for the first 2 weeks I had them. The foot pedal was bought less than a week ago once this started happening. I think we can rule both of them out as culprits.

I think it either is a connection issue or a montherboard issue. I lean towards connection due to the fact that is works some times and not others, but what do I know. Is there any way the male plug connecting my trolling motor to my foot pedal could have gone bad? If not, I am back to the more sever issue like the motherboard.

[BoxMN]

But do you have an onboard charger? If so, check the fuses that should go to EACH battery. One could be blown, thus only charging one battery, thus it running on only 12v, essentially. Not sayign that is it, but it has happened to us, and had us baffled. Good luck.

Edit - also if the new batts are water filled, check the water level anyways. Just cause new does not mean good.

[fhj115]

Is there anyway you can take the motherboard out for inspection? It's possible that there could be a cold or cracked solder joint giving the intermittant problem. Just be careful and take your time if you need to do a solder touch-up

Brian