2006 MinnKota Power Drive

[Water Hazard]

I bought a 2006 MinnKota Power Drive when I bought my boat last year.

Does anyone else have one or a similar model? Do you have any issues with it? I am currently having the following two problems.

1. The motor does not like to come out of its cradle. When I want to use the motor, I loosen the collar, slide it up the motor's shaft, and then lift the handle that should allow me to drop the motor out of the storage position. In order to get the motor out of its storage cradle, I have to put my foot on it and push. Over the weekend, my dad just about fell overboard while doing this.

It seems like there has to be a better and safer way of dropping this motor.

2. The momentary/continuous lever is not working properly. My little brother was driving the boat this weekend and the trolling motor kept turning off on him. We finally figured out that when he let his foot off of the continuous lever, the motor would turn off.

I am pretty sure the contacts must be dirty or something to that matter.

So, does anyone have any suggestions? Does anyone know the length of the MinnKota warranty on something like I describe in #2?

Thank you for any help you can offer.

[upnorth]

If you have the model I am thinking of all you need to do to drop the motor is grab the handle and give a pull down and it should allow the motor to easily drop down.

As far as the rest of it there is just the little lever on the right side for continous power and it just needs to be pushed down.

[Walleye Rueben]

I talked with a Minn Kota service man. He said that they changed the design recently (including the 2006 model) of the Powerdrive. He has had several complaints about the difficulty in deployment. His customers would rather buy the refurbished older models than the newer ones.

They don't have problems with the Terrova models. In fact, they seem to deploy much easier and smoother.

[firebug]

Say your best off taking it to an authorized service center.

Also just double check to make sure your mounting bolts are tight.( for the plate) if these are loose the unit will bind.

[Slyster]

I have the Powerdrive 40# and as much as I love the motor when I am using it... it's very hard to deploy.. in fact.. once on the water.. I pull it up with the propeller UP (not correct) when I have to move using the gas motor.. just so I can put deploy it with ease.. but it isn't very secure that way... bobs up and down... but you REALLY need to push down HARD on the release to get it to shoot forward an inch or so forward while it unlatches... but man they could have done a better job designing it.

Spray on some WD40 on the shaft on contact points to make it smoother.

[Juan Grande]

I have that same model and it does suck trying to get the motor to come out of its cradle. I have to push very hard and almost rock or wiggle it out.

Like Slyster, I pull up the trolling motor when using the gas motor, but don't lock it in.

Another thing that frustrates me about that design is that I mounted my flasher on the bow and I have a transducer mounted on the bottom of the trolling motor. Since the motor shaft has to pass through that power drive box when retracted, I can't run the transducer wire up the shaft.

I got universal sonar with the motor, but it won't work with Marcum flashers.

[TurnUpTheFishing]

Mine use to be hard but now its a breeze. My dad loosend something... Ill try to remember and ask him this weekend and relay the info here.

[moderation]

Mine used to come out of the cradle very hard, had to pound on the head with my hand to get it out.

I tried a little WD 40 in the cradle and it now comes out very easy. I only have to treat it once or twice a season,

but if used a lot it may have to be treated more often. I used the WD 40 in the stick form so there was no overspray to deal with.

[spudhauler]

Using armourall (sp?) on the shaft helped mine a lot.

[Slyster]

Be careful... I resprayed mine with WD40 today and on the water it went out so fast I hit my elbow on the top part of the motor.. really bad.. hand went numb. it works.