Loose trolling motor magnets?!

[johnr]

Has anyone’s trolling motor ever suffered a loose magnet in the motor housing? If so, is there a fix or is it time to buy new?

I’ve got a lightly used Xi5 that has a loose magnet in the housing. It still runs, but it makes an awful racket that certainly won’t help catch any fish.

I’ve had it apart and I don’t see a way to repair it myself.

Thoughts?

[Yam]

My Riptide had some magnet fall off. The TM sounded like hell. All crunchy or something.

I then opened the lower unit and just cleaned it out. The motor ran decent afterwards for about another year. Eventually I just replaced the housing which means a new shaft as well. Runs good as new now.

The MK rep stated that a certain percentage of magnet could be gone with minimal harm to the motor. I can't remember the number. However, I remember the rep telling me that it happens all the time based on the baking process that adheres the magnet to the housing.

[johnr]

It’s two magnets in this assembly, and one of em is loose. I’ve yet to be able to remove it.

Looks like a new motor and shaft it will be.

[fatdaddy]

Get you some JB Weld I fixed mine one time with it ran forever !!! There deferent Epoxy,s you can get also that will work Put it were it belongs & epoxy around be shore keep it below the armature There just but them with a Rossen Material !! AnywAY IT WORKED FOR ME A COULPLE YEARS !! But if you go new route I,m shore youl make some one on hear happy with your old one !! Just Saing Ol Buddy !!

[johnr]

I’ve disassembled, cleaned with sandpaper and acetone, developed some fixturing, and reinstalled the magnet using the 5000psi JB Weld. Figuring out how to hold the magnet in place was the toughest part.

The magnet that I removed had very little adhesive on it from the factory, 50% coverage of the magnet surface area, at best.

In a few hours it will have been fixtured for 24 hours, and I will attempt reassembly.

[mwardncsu]

Getting the shaft in past the brushes can be tricky. Make sure to use something to hold them out of the way so the shaft can fully do in when the magnet grabs the motor

[johnr]

Funny you mentioned that, I felt like I needed 4 extra hands for that part. I found some small zip ties that worked wonderfully.

And I’m so excited, because when I finished putting it all together and cleaned up, I had a retaining ring leftover that goes on the shaft behind the brushes. So I’ll get to do it all over again.

On the plus side, everything fit together and there is absolutely no squeaking or grinding.

[Yam]

Great stuff. Now you can add 1 more skill to your rather impressive list!

[fatdaddy]

Some of the brush holders have Pin holes in them to hold Brush,s in wile putting armature back in I have drilled a small hole to insert a Small riviot Just saying !!!

[johnr]

Just an update on this in case anyone ever needs to know...

The fix has held up fine since I did this just over a year ago. I don’t know how many hours are on the motor since then, but it’s a bunch. My biggest worry was the effect of air-water temp difference and the differing coefficients of thermal expansion causing the adhesive bond to fail. It hasn’t yet....

When I completed the repair, I had a slight misalignment of the magnet which resulted in a low frequency “brushing” noise when running the motor at less than 5 speed. After several hours, the motor armature and magnet had apparently worn down the high spots which resulted in the noise disappearing. I had concerns with the resulting dust but the magnet has collected it in the gaps and I don’t foresee any issues.