# Cutting a trolling motor shaft down?



## Loafy

Anyone have any info on shortening a trolling motor shaft? 

 I have a 40lb minn kota bow mount with a 40 inch shaft. I need to make it shorter for fishing the river. I know they sell one with a 36" shaft but I don't have the green for a new one.

 Anybody?


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## bradpatt03

does it not have knobs that you can loosen up so that it slides up?


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## Drowning Worms

*Shaft*

Go ahead and cut it down from the top, it is plastic and should be no problem.  Check to see if there is a hole drilled in the top of the shaft.  If so make sure you drill another one.  The biggest concern that you might have is what to do with the excess wire.


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## Loafy

Brad, the motor does have the knobs on the mounting bracket. I generally keep it slid up high to keep the prop out of the weeds and stumps and such but it has a drawback. The head of the motor sticks up too high and I cannot count the times I've wacked it with a big ole spinner bait. It just gets in the way.

 dschieman, I've looked at a diagram of the motor and it looks like the composite plastic bottom section of the shaft would be the part to cut . Is that right?
 I'm asuming that I could take the two sections apart, cut some off of the top and cut the wires. Then solder the wires back together and reconnect the halves. That make sence?

 One more question. IS your advice from experience or best guess? I really dont want to screw this thing up.


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## rip18

I'm with dschieman, cut it from the top...

I've got a 10' Crow Boat.  This is a small, plastic boat that basically takes any regular trolling motor on the back, but you take it apart, cap the shaft, and move the controls to the center of the boat.  I've done two trolling motors now.

Based on those two motors, once you take off the top, the wires usually unplug from the rheostat in the motor head.  In one case, the plugs were color coded to make it easy to put back, in the other case, I had to mark them.  Then you can take a hack saw or similar saw & cut off the metal portion of the shaft.  In both of the motors I worked with, it would be very easy to cut off the plugs on the wires  to shorten the wires & replace them with standard marine-grade wire ends.  In one case, I did extend the existing wiring with no problem.

I think you might have more problems cutting & replacing the plastic section from a structural integrity standpoint than the top.  Also, by cutting the top, the wiring remains in better shape (if the shaft ever got water in it, you would have a higher probability of a short if cut in middle rather than shortened from the top).  

The good news is that the Minn Kota was the easier of the two motors to work with!!!

Good luck!


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## Loafy

Ok.....
  I guess I'm more confused than I thought or we are all saying the same thing so maybe a picture would help.

  THe top part of the shaft is metal, the bottom part is plastic. 

  Should I cut out the blue metal section or the red plastic section?
 I was thinking I should take apart the joint between the two pieces, cut the section marked by the red arrows out and drill a new hole and reassemble?
  Right or wrong?


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## rip18

If I was doing it, the appropriate length of the top/blue/metal part would be removed.

Based on the picture & what I've done in the past, you would unbolt the head & remove it.  There will be a couple of little"alignment" parts that may come off when you take it off, but they were easy enough to put back when re-assembling.  

Then unplug the wires, cut & smooth the shaft, cut the wires, put new plugs on end of wires, drill new hole in shaft for bolt holding head, & re-assemble.

It is MUCH easier for me to say this than you to do it the first time, but it shouldn't take long.  I can see where doing it either way would work, so good luck.


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## bradpatt03

this sounds like a pretty tough deal.....how do you plan on putting it back together when your done?


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## Loafy

putting it back together is the fun part.

The difference between 2 trolling motors of the same make is the lenght of their shafts. THe metal tube is the same length on each of them, the plastic part varies in size. I know that you can take it to a shop to get a new bottom piece put on to make it longer or shorter so it can be done.

I'm just going to take it apart this afternoon and see!


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## Loafy

Well duh huh!

I figured out last night that what I was being told was correct on all 3 accounts and I was just not understanding it. 

I finally took the motor apart and the light came on for me! 

I was thinking that it the metal part of the shaft was actually part of the shaft but in reality it is just a sleeve over the shaft. I could not get that through my head.

I took the motor apart and cut the shaft down by 6 inches, everything looked ok and seemed to get fine until I realized the problem....

The top of the shaft accepts a metal piece with a gear on top which actually controlls the right and left movement of the shaft. The problem is that this gear which is attached to a metal tube has to slide into the top of the shaft. The origional shaft is bored out about 1/10 of an inch to accept it.

After some grinding and drilling I got the tube to fit. Put the screws back in, applied some expoxy for good measure and put the whole thing back together.

Over all it was not "that" difficult and I am very pleased with the results. If I were to do it again I would probably just buy a replacment shaft of the correct size and just replace it instead of cutting it down but it turned out ok anyway.

Thanks for the imput dschieman and rip18. You guys put me in the right direction!


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## Jim Ammons

YEA Loafy:    

Congratulations!!


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## rip18

Loafy -

Good deal!!!! Glad it worked!!


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## bukhuntr

I had the same problem you had on a Minn Kota.  Mine did not have the metal at the top, but rather the entire shaft was composite.  I removed the screw at the top, measured the shaft, cut it with a hacksaw, cut the wires, shortened them, drilled a new hole at the top, reconnected the wires with inline clamps, put it all backtogether and it works fine.

Not sure how I would approach your model.  You definately want to keep your cut above the bracing, so I would say metal, but in looking at yours, cutting the metal won't reduce the overall height that much.  Does the composite shaft extend all the way thru the metal to the guide head?  If so, I would just shorten it.


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