Xi5 Woes....

[yupitsme]

As stated.... working on Xi5. This is a 3 year old unit that, other than the well documented issues, has served me fairly well. Was fishing a tournament this weekend. Trolling motor starting doing this "knocking" sorta sound. Pulled the prop - nothing there. Started using it again... it's quiet. Then on high speed it's starts that knockin' sound again. It's intermittent sometimes it does it... sometimes not. That was Saturday. Sunday... day 2 of our championship.... about 1/3 of the way through the day it's starts the knockin'/bumping.... Kinna hard to describe but sho'nuff easy to hear/feel. Pull prop again and reinstall. Didn't help. I can measure the prop shaft thrust with a ruler(don't need a dial indicator) thrust is somewhere between 1/8-3/16". Would need a dial indicator to measure end play. There's not much there. Then....

We go from a knockin' sorta sound to a squeeling squalling sound. I was having doubts about the Xi5 finishing this tournament. It was pretty stinkin' bad/loud. In the end it did finish the tournament.

So here we are on Monday morning. I pulled the commutator cap. Water intrusion. What I though was a bearing going bad was not. There are no bearing here. Nothing but bushings. Makes sense - I suppose. So what was causing the knockin' squalling sound? I dunno. One would think the armature banging on the magnets could create the knocking sound. But with the armature in hand there's no obvious contact marks. Inspecting the magnets reveals no obvious contact. The armature shaft is scored on the Comm cap. end. Looking inside the shaft hole where the seals are - the seals look bad. But it's really hard to tell.

Unfortunately PhotoBucket is down so I can't post pics.... But, I'm thinking because there is obvious scoring on the armature shaft in the seal area - replace armature. Because there is water intrusion and it appears the prop shaft seals are damaged. Replace communtator cap w/seals.

Although the brushes don't look bad... I'm in this thing already so may as well replace brush plate/brushes.

And replace both housing 'O'rings/seals...

Can anyone suggest additional actions I can/should take while I have this thing opened up? Anybody got a recommendation for coating the armature to prevent rusting or does it come with a coating /clear coat protection?

Then other than cleaning up the armature to remove the rust.

Here's the parts list I came up with. John... can you confirm correct parts#s and add any if I missed'em?

Commutator cap - 8M002677
Armature - 8M4002654
Brush Card Kit - 8M4002711
Seal Kit - 8M4002715


Thanks to all that respond.

[Bradrodfish]

Did you notice if the e-ring that holds the thrust washers in place was still there. Check Magnetic housing and see if maybe a piece of magnet did not chip off or the magnetic itself did not crack and slide just a bit from where it is suppose to set.
Part numbers are correct.

[yupitsme]

Yes... the e-ring is still there. There are two pretty thin washers that can slide off even with the e-clip in place. There are no washers on the armature side of the e-clip. The magnets are located just behind the shaft hole - maybe even just a tad past the shaft hole. I was all prepared to state that there was no damage to the magnets. I'd checked them several times. But before posting that I figured I'd go look one more time.... Well what'ya' know.... There is a very thin sliver missing on one of the 4 sections. Maybe 3/8" long and would require a micrometer to measure the depth. VERY minor. But could'a cause the knocking sound I heard - I guess. Other than that I can see absolutely no hint that the magnets have moved. From what I can tell there's 4 segments and they're in the same position relative to the housing and the line that is visible between the segments is uniform on each one. Really don't want to replace the magnet housing but.... What do you think? And "IF" I go to that length I'm gonna install 60" shaft. I'm close to retiring this trolling motor with all the advances that are either here or coming so really just looking to get it working again.....

Thanks Brad.... Seems like I've been getting a lot of help from you LA folks here recently!

[Bradrodfish]

Motor guide spec says more than 1/4" It is your call. If you feel uncomfortable with it Replace the housing and the shaft. I would not go through those length. It should run fine as it is.
Make sure you locate all the pieces that are split off. could cause lock up if not all found. Do a thorougher inspection with a strong light to make sure it does not have anymore cracks. It it does then I would replace it all.
It is what we do help people that need help. thanks for the comps.

[yupitsme]

I went ahead and pulled the magnet housing/shaft out of the steering transmission. Used purple power and a brush to clean magnet housing. Did find some very small fragments of the magnet. Got a lot of them out - it's mostly dust. Will require even more cleaning to get it all but.....I've been wanting a shaft longer than the 45" I installed since - the first time I encountered rough water while trying to hold on an off shore hump! If I'm ever going to get it - now would be that time. Although I really believe the magnets would be fine I think I'm gonna go with the 54" shaft and a new magnet housing. Fishing Toledo Bend off shore in the spring..... 122" shaft would come in handy at times! Or so it seems

[yupitsme]

I went ahead and pulled the magnet housing/shaft out of the steering transmission. Used purple power and a brush to clean magnet housing. Did find some very small fragments of the magnet. Got a lot of them out - it's mostly dust. Will require even more cleaning to get it all but.....I've been wanting a shaft longer than the 45" I installed since - the first time I encountered rough water while trying to hold on an off shore hump! If I'm ever going to get it - now would be that time. Although I really believe the magnets would be fine I think I'm gonna go with the 54" shaft and a new magnet housing. Fishing Toledo Bend off shore in the spring..... 122" shaft would come in handy at times! Or so it seems

As stated earlier there's 2 washers before the e-clip. I'm assuming those are thrust washers. Do you... are anyone else have the factory thrust clearances that it's supposed to be? I checked 2 Minn Kotas that were docked where I was working on my electronics and they have very minimal thrust clearances. But then they might have bearings too!

[Bradrodfish]

Minn Kota does have a bearing on the nose cone end of the motor. If the 2 thrust washers are in place correctly.(S/S against the e-ring) then the travel is around a 1/16 of an inch. Estimate. Could be more.
Make sure you order the epoxy glue to glue the shaft on the housing. Not at shop, but part number is on the complete motor diagram.

[yupitsme]

Minn Kota does have a bearing on the nose cone end of the motor. If the 2 thrust washers are in place correctly.(S/S against the e-ring) then the travel is around a 1/16 of an inch. Estimate. Could be more.
Make sure you order the epoxy glue to glue the shaft on the housing. Not at shop, but part number is on the complete motor diagram.

OK.... I thought I remembered more thrust on the Xi5 shaft than what I was seeing on the Minn Kota's.

Thanks for the heads up on the epoxy. One of the parts web sites suggested using Loctite "Red". But I had spoken to an ASC tech sometime back about replacing the shaft and he mentioned epoxy as well.

[cajunrgfm]

Mine died the same death,i found it cheaper to buy the whole foot already assembled,than to replace all the parts,which also involves a new shaft anyhow,the shafts are 1 use only,it wasnt all that expensive

[cajunrgfm]

The new foot comes ready to rock with enuff wire to work on a 60" shaft,they want $$$ for their special glue,i used west epoxy on the threads of my new shaft,and it's on for life

[yupitsme]

Mine died the same death,i found it cheaper to buy the whole foot already assembled,than to replace all the parts,which also involves a new shaft anyhow,the shafts are 1 use only,it wasnt all that expensive

Thanks! Looks like that's the way I'm going as well. It's about $45.00 more going with the whole foot assembly vs pieces and parts. But for that $45.00 I get a new sonar/temp sender/cone. And a unit fully assembled - I suppose that's worth something. As for the shaft... I wanted a longer one any way.