My Minn Kota Maxxum is the original trolling motor that came on my 2008 G3 boat. So I have 10 seasons on it.
In those 10 seasons I haven't had a single problem with it. I
did have to replace the bottom half of the plastic head on the top of the motor because it was cracked, but that was something that didn't affect the use of the motor or cause it to stop working.
Tuesday when I fished, about 20 minutes into the trip, I was pressing on the button (with my foot) to move the boat forward. I heard a small "click" or "snap", like something very small had broken. I looked down and didn't see any broken plastic pieces anywhere. But when I lifted my foot off of the TM foot pedal, I noticed that the motor kept running and the "go" button was still depressed.
I reached down and lifted that button with my hand and the motor stopped running. But as soon as I let got if it, the button dropped down and the TM started running again. So for the rest of the trip, I either kept the TM running on very, very low, or I would turn it off and on using the switch on the side of the foot pedal base.
But I did use my pocket knife to lift that "go" button out of the foot pedal, and that's when I saw what was wrong. Under that button there is a very small spring that had snapped in two. So without that spring, the button would stay down when I removed my foot, thus keeping the motor running.
Like I said, I fished the rest of the trip with it that way, but jumped right on the phone and onto Facebook when I got home, trying to track down a replacement spring.
It took me less than a half hour before a local angler hit me up to let me know he had one and he would give it to me for free
A few minutes later I was picking it up, and then I installed it a short time after that. And all is well.
I'm thankful that it was a quick, easy, cheap fix.
But having this happen tells me that I should probably keep a spare spring with me now, just in case it happens again.
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