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Thread: Motorguide W55 Wireless problems

  1. #1

    Motorguide W55 Wireless problems

    Is there any help from the brains trust here regarding some difficulties I'm having with my Leccie?
    Running off a 120A/H gel battery, when the usage gets below 13A the motor begins to play up n not function properly.
    I know it happens at this point because when I bring the motor home & connect the dedicated charger, it displays the batteries current charge.
    Symptoms include poor performance, lack of control, and a total disconnect. Total disconnect sees the motor reinstate but with no speed in the motor. Its as though it is resetting and the motor needs the speed controller raised to get it going (or not going as it were). It's basically all the drama's of a severely low battery or poor connection. For mine its the later that is the issue but I cant seem to find a problem outside of the motor. So I'm guessing there is an issue inside somewhere.
    I've never had one of these apart before but reckon it cant be too hard. Has anyone ever come across a similar problem and can help?
    I'd happily take it to a service professional if there were one here in Adelaide. Motorguide / Mercury have given me the details of their dealers but by the dealers own admission, they have never worked on these and a cursory investigation has not revealed anything. I say cursory as the motor wasnt even opened!
    I've checked n cleaned the battery connections and the battery indicator on the motor is saying that the batteries charge is still good when these symptoms arise.

  2. #2

    Re: Motorguide W55 Wireless problems

    I assume you mean 13 volts.
    Has the battery been load tested? or have you tried another battery?
    Cheers
    Ray

  3. #3

    Re: Motorguide W55 Wireless problems

    Unless you check the volts under load, a voltage reading means very little. You will need to do voltage drop checks at the closest connections to the motor while the unit is running at a high rpm setting on the water as a start and then at the battery on the same setting and compare the two.

  4. #4

    Re: Motorguide W55 Wireless problems

    Yes Ray, sorry I did mean 13V. Electrickery aint one of my strong points!
    To date the battery has not been load tested, no & the other battery I have of similar capacity is a dud. Looks like getting a load test might be a good starting point. Then it's learning how to use a multimeter and following scottars instructions.
    The motor does have a battery condition light that shows it's in top condition when this fault happens, but I guess this could be misleading. I also pressed the test button on the motor whilst this problem was evident and underway. The light displaying that the battery condition was poor. I put this down to the fact that the motor was working and reading is flawed. There is a note in the users manual, I think, that its best not to do this when underway.
    I have a video of the problem but not sure how to post without putting it on youtube or similar.
    I will look to get the battery tested and go from there. Thanks for the help thus far.

  5. #5

    Re: Motorguide W55 Wireless problems

    Check the battery voltage whilst the motor is going. My 24 volt minnkota ulterra shuts down at 18.5 volts under load for an hour but when off load the battery voltage increases to 24.5 volts. I know that my batterys are cactus and need replacement.
    One of the problems with motorguide is that they rely on their retailers to do their servicing whilst minnkota have their own service centre with factory trained technicians. The downside of this can be long delays and the inconvenience of returning your motor to the service centre.
    Cheers
    Ray

  6. #6

    Re: Motorguide W55 Wireless problems

    Quote Originally Posted by rayken1938 View Post
    One of the problems with motorguide is that they rely on their retailers to do their servicing whilst minnkota have their own service centre with factory trained technicians. The downside of this can be long delays and the inconvenience of returning your motor to the service centre.
    Cheers
    Ray
    Yes, its a pain.
    prior to my current situation, I have been budgeting for an upgrade to an Xi5 mainly because of its compatibility with my Lowrance electronics, but based on the fact that no one in Adelaide knows anything about these motors, I am now wondering if an MK ain't a better proposition.
    For all the negativity about JW watersnakes, the fact that they were cheap & had a service centre here in Adelaide made them a great choice of motor.

  7. #7

    Re: Motorguide W55 Wireless problems

    Only thing the watersnakes lack is gps spot lock, you would think in this day and age it would be fairly easy and low cost to add that feature, im sure they would sell a lot more if they had it and were a couple hunded $ extra.

  8. #8

    Re: Motorguide W55 Wireless problems

    So took the battery into battery world for a load test as suggested & whatdya know, battery is stuffed after around 12 months.
    from a start voltage of 13.25V the battery had a life of just 37.8min. Hardly surprised by the run time as that would be around the usage of the motor before problem arise.
    Guess I'm about to find out how good Supercharge's warranty is.
    Point of this post is to thank those of you how responded with suggestions. I'd still have been looking at the motor otherwise.
    Goes to show also that the service reps here for motorguide know SFA about them. Another reason to look at alternatives for the upgrade!

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