Re: Let there be light - added a light to my Motorguide W75 Wireless trolling motor
Should work fine.
How was removing the old composite shaft from the motor? Was heat the trick? or other method?
truthfully - a real pain in the bottom. I was using a big pipe wrench and a heat gun. At first I was trying to be careful and not scratch the old shaft - that did not last long. I could not get a good enough grip on it - maybe if I used something made of rubber.
I ended up not trying to save the old shaft and put the pipe wrench directly on the shaft. Heated it up pretty well with the heat gun - nothing. I could not get it to budge. I was holding the heat gun on the motor end for a LONG time, so long I was actually a tad concerned about warping soemthing - still nothing. I messed with it for quite some time and could not get it to budge. By now, where I had the pipe wrench was all cracked and messed up. Figured I would break the shaft off close to the bottom and then just break what was threaded and pull it out in pieces.
Laid it on the floor on a piece of 2 x 4, grabbed my hand sledge hammer and started whacking the heck out of it. Nothing like taking a sledge hammer to that expensive motor you just bought.
Now before I bought this, I was reading other people's opinions and came across a few posts where people said they hated Motorcraft, they had a wireless and kept bending the shaft - sorry, but I call b.s.
I was hitting that shaft as hard as I could and it would not break - it dod get all cracked up, but because it is composite, it would not break off. There is no possible way you could bend this shaft.
I am seriously going to make a short video sometime of me hitting the shaft with my sledge hammer. I am by no means a Motorcraft apologist, but those that are saying they bent the shaft on one of these can not be telling the truth.
Anyway, could not break it off with the sledge hammer but it did get all cracked up. So now actually getting kind of worried but left with no choice, the way i ended up having to break it off was by pounding a screwdriver through small sections of the wall and using leverage, break off the small pieces at a time. must be fiberglass in there as I did get some 'glass in my hands that bugged me for a good day.
Needed to be careful doing this too as the wires go thru the shaft - did not want to pound the screwdriver thru the wires.
Anyway, it eventually broke off this way and I broke it off pretty close to the threads.
Then I took the screwdriver and pounded it thru the shaft where it threaded in - obviously at an angle so I did not mess up the threads.
Believe it or not it worked.
Then I had to clean out the threads from the compound they used - i forget off the top of my head what it is, but it seemed like it was JB Weld. I don't have any taps even close to that size, so I started out by trying to scrape off as much as I could with a small screwdriver, being careful with the threads. I still had to heat it up to clean it off - that stuff was seriously rock hard.
Still could not get it all off and the new shaft would not twist in all of the way, so then I took a real heavy gauge wire and grinded a sharp flat edge on it, bending it at a 90" angle - again heating it up with the heat gun while scraping that off. i also used a brass gun brush i have for my 12 gauge.
It was a royal pain to be honest. Before I started I was thinking what a ripoff to pay someone $100+ to change the shafts. After a while I changed my mind and totally understood why they charge so much - they earn it. The whole time i was doing this I did have the motor itself resting on some foam insulation so it would not get all scratched up. I was seriously thinking after a while that I might have to end up taking it in to a machine shop and have them get it off.
If I had to do it over again, i would just immediately go for the screwdriver, break it off near the threads and then break it off inside the motor part. Would have saved me a whole bunch of time and aggravation if I knew they basically used JB Weld on those things (I know they don;t but i am serious, that stuff was rock hard - granite rock hard)
When installed the new one, I did mess up a bit. My new shaft did not have the hole drilled in it for the bottom cover. Not thinking, I went ahead and installed the new column, thinking i would drill the hole next.
For the new column, I figured there was a reason they used such a hard epoxy, so after insuring it screwed in all of the way, I ran my now spliced wires thru (I soldered them and used heat shrink tubing plus for good measure still put some electrical tape around the splice) then put some 2 part epoxy on the bottom half of the threads, being careful not to have too much so it wouldn't be squeezed out and into the motor, and on the top half of the threads I am sure i did not need to, but I went ahead and put on some clear silicone - then using a rubber jar opener pad, screwed it all of the way in and called it quits for the day.
Came out the next day to finish it up - remember i did not drill the hole before I installed the shaft ? I did not think that thru very well - of course the wires were now inside the shaft - 2 12 gauge wires in not all that big a hole. If I just drilled thru, I would screw up the wires and of course now the 2 part epoxy was dry.
Hmmmm, so happened i had a plastic funnel that was taperd with the end a bit smaller than the inside diameter of the hole. So keeping the wires to the sides of the funnel, I pushed the funnel in - which now had them out of the way of the drill bit as it came thru. Ruined a good $2.00 funnel, but that is what I get for not thinking ahead.....
Would I do it again, sure would, in a heart beat. Sure it would be nice to pay someone $100-$125 to do it for me, but I would be thinking I could buy myself a decent spinning reel, pole, tackle etc.
If I would have immediately went to breaking it with the screwdriver, i am guessing it would have taken 10-15 minutes - NOT counting cleaning the threads. Took me well over 30 minutes, probably closer to an hour to just clean the threads. I would guess if you could get it to screw out you would not have that problem, but I really could not get that thing to budge and was seriously worried about over heating the case of the motor. I had no problem screwing up the shaft, it was not going to be used anyway - but the motor - now that I was always very, very aware of not doing any damage.
LED lights - not counting drying time for the epoxy i used on the battery holder, i don;t know, start to finish maybe 15 minutes.........that was a piece of cake. The column - that did get me pretty frustrated BUT, I am loving it now and can not wait to get on the lake. I have a fish & ski, the shaft was 48" - if i stood in the back of the boat the motor would start cavitating. The whole point of me getting the wireless is so I could be fishing anywhere in the boat.
Now I can. 60" is perfect
long enough.....sorry, my drugs just kicked in a bit ago
