Trolling Motor Repair

[Brine]

I have a MinnKota Endura 55 transom mount that's about 3 yrs old now. Saturday, it decided not to work. I figured the switch had gone bad (because it did about a year or so ago, and when I call MinnKota they sounded fairly certain that was the problem and that it was a common occurence with that motor.) So, after loading the boat up and taking a closer look, I realized that I could grab the prop and acutally pull it along with the spindle about 1/2" out and back in, meaning there was "slop" in the movement. I say this because I have another identical motor up front that does not do this. Once I pushed the prop back in, the motor started working, assumedly because the brushes started making contact again. So, I took the prop off and started digging down. First off, this area which I assume is meant to be water free, (because of the gasket) is taking in water. Not sure if the "slop" had anything to do with it or if the gasket was just shot, but inside was wet, and there was a fair amount of crud and carbon inside.

Has anyone experienced this "slop" in the prop?

Below the armature is a bearing that looks to just sit in a hole below the brushes, but I could not see or understand how any retainer clip would work.

 

[Brine]

Solved.

Those guys at MinnKota are as good as I've ever found at Customer Service.

 

[Macgyver]

do tell, don't leave us wondering......lol

 

[bassboy1]

Those guys at MinnKota are as good as I've ever found at Customer Service.

Yeah they are. One of the many reasons I am a Minn Kota guy. They have helped me on a bunch of occasions.

So, what exactly was the problem. I have a few ideas, and want to compare them to what y'all found.

 

[Brine]

Once water gets into the motor, it will rust the e-clip that acts like a retainer for the motor, and it had completed rusted away. I ordered all new seals in addition to the e-clip.

UPDATE
Today I used the motor at a tourney and found out the motor is running backwards. This isn't the first time this has happended, and it's always caused by my partner hooking up the battery wrong half asleep in the dark, but not today. I'm having a hard time understanding how this is happening, because I didn't touch any eletricals when I did the repair; however, I know there is a permanent magnet built into the lower housing that operates the motor. All I can figure is I neet to rotate the stator. Not sure, and because this is a two day tournament I don't want to take it apart tonight and muck it up tomorrow.

It's still functional the way it is. I may reverse the battery cables and see if that is a temp fix. I'll update once I have solved this problem.