Terrova Prop wont start.

[ILSmallieChaser]

Bought a boat with a Terrova on it.

When its down in the water and power is on I can turn the motor left and right no problem. The navigation on it works fine but more times then not when I hit the prop button on the remote nothing happens. I have found if I go and hit with my open palm on the top of the head it will suddenly start working and I have thrust but then if I turn it back off its 50/50 whether it will come back on again without me hitting the head again with my hand. Anybody seen anything like this? Getting ready to pop the head off and look around for loose connections or wires or what not just figured I'd ask if anybody saw this and might know what exactly to look for.

I upgraded the terrova on my last boat from ipilot to ipilot link so I know that top module is one sealed unit and I'm assuming or I guess hoping that since navigation and steering works still maybe this problem lies outside of the sealed unit?


Thank You!

[Ozark Bob]

Could have water in it or needs brushes. Bob(the should be sealed lower unit)

[Thalweg]

I had the same thing happen to me. It turned out the magnet in the motor head had chipped. The sharp edge of the chip would catch on the motor windings and prevent it from rotating. If I gave the prop a little nudge it would start running and stay running until I turned it off. Once I tried to restart the chip would catch again. I fixed mine by pulling the lower unit apart and removing the chips.

[Thalweg]

Forgot to add that on another occasion it had water in the lower unit that corroded things pretty bad. I ended up replacing the rotor and bearings.

[Ozark Bob]

The shaft and motor are sold as 1 piece as a reasonable option as well. You know it will be well sealed with new everything. JMO Bob

[ILSmallieChaser]

Thanks guys. There is no grinding or anything heard when I spin the prop by hand. But I'm going to get it pulled apart this week and see if maybe some water didn't get in it. From what I was told this was new in 2018 so hopefully its not to bad to get it cleaned back out if water did get in.

[Kims Paycheck]

Ours did same thing few weeks ago 2015 unit. Took it to Minn Kota service rep in Norwalk, Ohio. The Trolling House. Inside of motor was totally smoked. Could not re-build. New shaft with motor installed was $695.00. Brush spring broke, high heat build up. Even melted epoxy that holds the US2. It still spun smooth by hand. We went with new Ulterra. Trolling house gave me a fair price for the burnt up Terrova. He was putting a 72" shaft and motor on it. Then selling to another guy.

This must of been going on awhile. I thought we needed new batteries, was only getting 4 hours out of them on the water. When they motor starts to go bad you pull alot more power from the batteries.

New Ulterra getting 7-8 hours again out of same batteries.

[brigeton]

I had that problem with my power drive once. There was a loose spade connection in the power head where the wires go down to the motor.

[SD-walleye]

I had a similar thing happen on my Terrova this spring. It would only work sometimes when fully deployed but everytime when I went to put it back into the storage position it started working. I talked to a MinnKota mechanic in my area and he said 6 weeks to get it into his shop but it sounded like water in the lower unit. I decided that 6 weeks was too long to wait so I took apart the lower unit and it looks like I had water or condensation in it at one time but not at this particular time. There was a little bit of corrosion on one of the brushes and that wouldn't let it slide properly. I took a honing stone and smoothed out the edge of that particular brush, installed new o-rings around the housing and bolts and put it all back together and it is working fine. Check inside your lower unit, it is pretty easy to do and it might be something simple like my problem was.

[ILSmallieChaser]

Well mystery solved. I pulled the lower unit apart and sure enough signs of water intrusion. I see corrosion but nothing looks burned up. I found one of the brushes is sticking so going to work on that a bit and go try and find a new set of seals tomorrow and see how it does this weekend.

Thanks guys for your help!