Fortrex, harder to steer ONLY when moving

[JonNovak]

bought a Fortrex from a board member, its used pretty good. has a bent sheer pin. packaging was not great and the head was slammed into the ground, obviously. the direction arrow was knocked out and couple tabs broken off it. the middle gear in head was knocked out and one head cover screw hold was punched out. also has some slop in the pedal that i cant get gone. Yeah not very happy and havent said anything yet..... but i just finally got to use it today.

anyways, it seems to steer fine when not powered on. its harder to steer when moving at any speed in water. Ive searched and read bunch of posts about this but most seem to say they have to stand on it hard. i dont have to stand on it hard, just harder than normal, enough to lose contact with toe switch all the time when turning left

is this still a bent shaft sounding thing? i havent checked yet.

[Rip Bass]

Sounds like a bent inner shaft to me. Sorry.

[Urbanhick]

Mine is fairly new with no damage and it's harder to steer under power depending on the speed than when not under power.

[Bradrodfish]

The main shaft is composite. It will flex, but will come back to original position. Loose pedal can be tighten , but it sounds like you may be dealing with an outer shaft the large shaft issue or if it was all mess up in the box it could have a bearing ball lodged in between the outer shaft and the main. It could also be that the pinion screw that holds the pinion gear to the shaft has backed out and rubbing against the outer shaft.
If you are not sure what to do I would bring to an ASC.

[Rip Bass]

The main shaft is composite. It will flex, but will come back to original position. Loose pedal can be tighten , but it sounds like you may be dealing with an outer shaft the large shaft issue or if it was all mess up in the box it could have a bearing ball lodged in between the outer shaft and the main. It could also be that the pinion screw that holds the pinion gear to the shaft has backed out and rubbing against the outer shaft.
If you are not sure what to do I would bring to an ASC.

You are correct Brad,I had a brain fart. I meant outer shaft,the inner is composite.

[JonNovak]

did some tear down and investigation. thought the mount was making noise but its the spring mount system. loud creeking when pushing and pulling the shaft. sprayed some penetrate in there still loud creeking. does that mean the white bushing (?? teflon ??) may be worn out? i know its supposed to move when you hit something but it is a very loud creek sound i wouldnt expect to hear with a bushing in there. i havent tried seeing if my maxxum does the same thing, but ive never heard it do that loud creek when on the boat while using on the water.

the little extra rocking play in the pedal seems to be normal as my old 12 volt maxxum has the same slight play, although with the maxxum i never noticed it before. probably because it is not tougher to turn when under power.

Now onto the turning issue. with the drive gear slid off the top gear shaft, if i pull on the bottom of the motor shaft and turn by hand its a tiny bit harder to turn. if i push on the bottom of the motor shaft its smooth and easier to turn by hand. so yes, this makes no sense. thats reverse of what it should be.....i think

at some point i did notice maybe a lower bearing noise, possibly a bit of some binding and maybe a little play. so i put my ear on the thicker shaft near the bottom and i can hear the lower bearing. sounds like a bearing with no grease, if you know what i mean.

i could be way off here as i never have (yet) torn down a trolling motor shaft.

oh and lastly. the prop it came with doesnt have the collar so there is a gap between prop and motor. got a lot of crap in there. it should be ok to run as long as i dont get it to jammed up? not very happy but i guess this is how things go sometimes

[JonNovak]

Both bearing seem good. The 4 screws on top of shaft holding in the top gear are seated well. The race under bottom bearing is split. Thought that might be the problem but realized the bearing is sealed so the split won't effect it's performance

[Bradrodfish]

Both bearing seem good. The 4 screws on top of shaft holding in the top gear are seated well. The race under bottom bearing is split. Thought that might be the problem but realized the bearing is sealed so the split won't effect it's performance

if all you say is good then the outer shaft has to have a bend in it. If it is straight then without me being there to see it. all I can say is

[JonNovak]

Unreal. Couldn't see it by eye. Pulled the shaft and rolled on truck cap back window. Think it's bent. Rolled on edge if level and sure enough it's bent thru the entire length. Son of a .......

[Harbor202]

Just going to chime in. Im the one who sent it and it was in an ultrex box that I just received. I never had an issue out of it when I had it and it had none of the issues it has now. Can something broken in the top head that is destroyed (I've seen pictures) cause these symptoms? Can that shaft be bent from mishandling during shipping? Trying to get things ironed out.

[k3fishing]

[Bradrodfish]

All of the issues could have occurred in shipping. I have had new ones with issues. Because of the weight it is usually hard for one person to deliver.
I would make a claim with the shipper. See what they will do. the shipper and the receiver should work on this together.

[Idaho Sandman]

Sounds like damaged in shipping, therefore a shipping issue and not a seller issue. Hope you took pictures of the box in the damaged shape that your received it in before opening and after to document the damage from the shipper. I would have contacted the shipper upon arrival and would not have mounted it per your description, but that’s to late so you should contact them now and see what they will do. Bummer man and good luck.

[JonNovak]

just ordered bunch of parts to make it back to 100%. oh well, quite depressing .... lesson learned

[JonNovak]

to bad i didnt see the missing c-clip and damage the pin has been causing before i ordered all the other parts. totally rebuilt motor including removing the built in sonar. guess ill go order more parts for a motor that was supposed to be in great shape. Buyer beware !!

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[JonNovak]

Should i file these issues with paypal since i havent heard a thing since april 16th telling me he was going to call or go to ups to see what can be done. i am pretty disappointed i was just left hanging after all the sh!t i had to deal with and extra money and time its costed me and its still not 100%. i have to probably replace the spring mount crap so its stops creeking really loud when turning direction under higher power

[g352nv]

Should i file these issues with paypal since i havent heard a thing since april 16th telling me he was going to call or go to ups to see what can be done. i am pretty disappointed i was just left hanging after all the sh!t i had to deal with and extra money and time its costed me and its still not 100%. i have to probably replace the spring mount crap so its stops creeking really loud when turning direction under higher power

Mines doing the same thing. Let me know what parts you order.

[BassinLA13]

So apparently you’re not supposed to get up on plane with your trolling motor deployed ... well I tried anyway and bent the upper ‘outer shaft’ just a bit. That little dent / bend caused all the symptoms you’re having - fighting to turn and loud as heck. Had the local shop replace the shaft / bearings & now it’s good as new - all in about $280 bucks - parts & labor.

[Tromanoski]

I replaced my Fortex when I got it jammed in some rocks and broke the pivot bushings on both sides of the deployment arm when trying to get it free. As a result it stowed ok but I had to use my foot to push it down to get it deployed. Could have bent something else in the mount but I did not check any further. Except for the foot pedal needing adjusted to make it steer better, the motor ran fine. I new it needed some repair. I had it for 7 years. I was thinking about selling it for a couple of hundred dollars but I decided to give it away to a friend. Sometimes its not worth the hassle it to sell used stuff. Just my opinion.

[JonNovak]

i tried to oil everything i could to get it to stop any of the various noises but its bad. it steers great now but im thinking the mount is toast and will probably file a return with paypal after spending hours upon hours fixing, spending more on parts to fix the turning issue, and now you mention the steeping on it to get it deployed? Do you mean step on it to get it to lock in the down position? this one does that but i was thinking its because of the lift assist. i have been just turning to reverse and hitting the power to get it to lock down since im in a deep V i cant step on it as easily as a shallow bass boat.

if i stay under 30% power the noises arent to bad. anything more its just brutal creaking and screeching. The original for sale post was edited after the sale as "sold" the rest was deleted but i think it said it was only a few years old. serial shows it as a 2013. it also said good condition. it obviously was abused to its death in tournaments and never kept up. Hell, even the plastic shaft has gouges all over it.
the more i think about it the more angry i get. i just keep trying to forget about it but then i take the boat out and listen to it all over again.