I use a Minn Kota outboard electric motor but noticed as last season progressed certain selected speeds on the throttle worked better than others. (i.e.) Selecting speed 3 gave greater speed than selecting speed 4. The motor is about 5 years old. Does the motor need a rewind or work done?

Probably not. It would be a rare, rare angler who can use a Minn Kota enough to wear out the motor such that it needed to be rewound. I know of one angler who's done it, he fishes 5 days a week.

I'm assuming you have a transom-mount Minn Kota. The most likely cause is dirty contacts in the speed control mechanism. This is pretty common, especially with boats that sit at the pier or get trailered around so the motor gets exposed to lots of dust, wind, etc. Water and grit can get back into this mechanism and foul the contacts.

I'd try the easy DIY fix, first. I've fixed a couple of these just by opening the top case and cleaning the mechanism with contact cleaner or WD-40 seems to work fine as well.

This is where a picture is worth a thousand words, but depending on the model you should be able to open the top case (the part where the handle connects to the outboard. There you'll see the speed controller. Give it a good soaking with contact cleaner, obviously disconnecting it from the battery first. Repeat a couple of times, let it dry, then try it.

Do some Googling and find a schematic for your model so you can see the parts I'm talking about. They are out there, I've looked them up before. Start with Minn Kota's website http://www.minnkotamotors.com/.

Grouse

Hi' I haven't opened up a motor casing, but I presume that when you change gear, what happens is that each step up brings a bigger field winding into use. I am working purely from theory here. If the gear change affected the motor winding it would probably have to do it by increasing the voltage, and that doesn't happen.
It is possible that you have lost some turns on your high gear field winding.
You could try talking to someone who is trained in motor repair. If dirt is your problem, try listening for arcing ( sparking ) of the dirty contacts; but by all means check out the state of the switch, as Grouse suggests. Good luck, TC

Many thanks to both of you who replied. I think the contact cleaning may produce a result. We open up here on the Erne on the first of March and this is the first preseason job to be looked at. As the lough has ice on parts of it at the moment it is a far cry from a nice evening at the end of May with a good mayfly hatch on.
Mark Waston

when mine was playing up it was the switch - undo the various crosshead screws and the lid comes off. a new selector switch was about £25 from memory from johnsons who are the UK agents for minn kota.

JOHNSON OUTDOORS INC. UK
JOHNSON HOUSE/MAIN CROSS RD
GREAT YARMOUTH, NORFOLK NR30 3NA
United Kingdom
Tel: 44 1493745199
jarnold@johnsonoutdoors.com

this is possibly the right one

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/MINN-...ssoriesQ5fGear

As an aside, do not attempt to use an electric outboard to power your boat if you need to pull an icebreaker routine to get a boat through skim ice and out to open water. The chunks of ice that the hull breaks through get pushed under the boat and sucked into the prop and they will shear off both blades of the plastic prop in seconds. Don't ask me how I know that.

If you need to pull the old arctic icebreaker routine, use a petrol outboard.

Grouse

I won't ask how you know about losing your prop. blades. The Erne if you fly fish you really just look at from October to April. In a former career I worked on the Erne as a fishery officer and it would take several Famous Grouse to get me on a boat at this time of year.