Dilemma

[techo]

I took my bud out fishing yesterday and we decided to call it a day about 5:00 PM. I went to pull the trolling motor up and the rope broke. I did the broken rope trolling motor dance for what seemed hours, but managed to keep from falling down, falling out of the boat, stepping on any of the two thousand rods strewn across the deck and did not break any bones or gain any new bruises.

I did what any wise person did this year and took all of the unneccesary weight out of my boat earlier this year to conserve gas. One way to save weight is to take the tool kit you never use out of the boat. There will always be a guy around like rps to save the day anyhow. I am not sure where rps was yesterday,(probably saving someone up-lake) but I sure could have used a screwdriver. I could not get that trolling motor up for anything. I finally tried to use my pocket knife to push down on the locking bar and pick up the trolling motor. I have a very sharp knife that I often use to trim toe nails with and stuff. Unfortunately I managed to brush it up agains my transducer wire and expose a few wires. I did not cut it deep, but too deep. I have to apologize to anyone within ear shot on the lake yesterday for my string of quite loud profanity.

I used the big motor and drove to the nearest dock. I found a nail on the dock and was able to use it to pry against the eye of the hook (where a rope should be tied) and get my trolling motor up. Incidently.....thanks to whomever owns the dock for not shooting me.

So now the issue....can I just put electrical tape around that little slice or do I need a whole new depth finder. Mine are quite in-expensive, but works great for me. Would electrical tape keep the water out?

My apologies if this belongs in the general category, but I was fishing on Table Rock and I usually read this category more often.

PS I did fix the trolling motor rope.

[Whack'emGood]

Techo,

That sucks man, I have done similar things. When you get frustrated, you sometimes forget to take care when trying to fix something and end up just breaking something else. I am not a transducer tech expert... but I would imagine a deep cut in the line would affect the signal being transmitted from your transducer to your graph. Some of the other guys would probably know better than me and might say different. The rubber coating on mine got rubbed in one spot (fixed with electrical tape), but didn't affect any of the wires, and it still works great... but with cut wires??? Don't sound good to me. Depending on what graph you have, you should be able to just buy a new transducer (with new wire attached, of course). So, am I right to gather that you have your transducer mounted on your trolling motor head? If so, a new transducer (not real expensive... certainly less than a new graph) wouldn't be too hard to mount and run the wiring. That is, of course, unless you have been looking for an excuse to buy (and can afford) a new graph. Good luck!

Whack'em

[rps]

Sorry Techo. I wasn't out yesterday. I went out after the Tstorms today and wound up towing a skiboat back to its dock. That officially used up all my nice for the year. From here on out I am in curmudgeon mode.

As for you dilemma, I suggest the official fixit of the Ozarks - lots of duct tape. If that doesn't fix it, it can't be fixed. ;-D

Seriously, try taping it up. Every day it works after you tape it is a day you don't have to buy a new transducer. Good luck.

[Bill P]

Techo,

That sucks man, I have done similar things. When you get frustrated, you sometimes forget to take care when trying to fix something and end up just breaking something else. I am not a transducer tech expert... but I would imagine a deep cut in the line would affect the signal being transmitted from your transducer to your graph. Some of the other guys would probably know better than me and might say different. The rubber coating on mine got rubbed in one spot (fixed with electrical tape), but didn't affect any of the wires, and it still works great... but with cut wires??? Don't sound good to me. Depending on what graph you have, you should be able to just buy a new transducer (with new wire attached, of course). So, am I right to gather that you have your transducer mounted on your trolling motor head? If so, a new transducer (not real expensive... certainly less than a new graph) wouldn't be too hard to mount and run the wiring. That is, of course, unless you have been looking for an excuse to buy (and can afford) a new graph. Good luck!

Whack'em

Exactly! "Gee honey,it couldn't be helped......now it's shot." White lies,done to upgrade toys,are perfectly acceptable!

[techo]

Hey! That liquid electrical tape sounds like a shot. I might try that. Thanks.

I thought about the heat shrink tube, but I am not sure how I would get it on without cutting it, or cutting the transducer wire the rest of the way through. I still might try that with the liquid tape, then duct tape!

I might use it as an excuse to get a new depth finder. Originally I was thinking of getting a bigger faster Skeeter, but the price of gas has made me fall in love with my 90 horse all over again.

[SKMO]

A couple three years ago I buggered up my tranny cable when it slid around the backside on my trolling motor shaft and pinched it in the bracket when my trolling motor was stowed. When I noticed it there were bare wires exposed, yet it still worked fine. Have no idea how long it had been messed up. I had obviously been using it for a while with the casing compromised.

I took it home and let it dry out and put a few layers of quality electrical tape over the wound. Continued to work fine thereafter.

Personally I would just tape it up good and see how it works. If it is hosed and I did not want a new D-finder I would get a new transducer, $40-70 depending on flavor.

However.... if you are needing a great excuse to present to the Little Lady to drop some $ on the latest and greatest, this is it.

For some reason I tend to think this might be more of a marital issue than an electronics issue. I think we would all back you up on this in case she seems skeptical.

[Tblrock]

Broke the transducer for my eagle 480 clean off @ McGee Creek last March.. Had an old one from a 320 with the cable cut in two. Spliced , soldered, wraped each wire with foil and electrical tape. Both signal and temp has worked for 14 months

See this link for detail. http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=63807

[mclothier1]

About the same thing happened to mine, the transducer cable got pinched in the trolling motor bracket and the fishfinder started acting all wacky, losing signal and stuff like that. I am mil spec solder certified so I just solder that sucker back together after taking a bunch of length out of the cable that I didnt need. I made sure and used some quality shrink sleeve which requires some advance planning and thought, then wrap each wire in foil, then shrink sleeve over the whole mess, so far its worked fine for a year.

So to answer your question...I gotta ask one. Did the wires themselves get nicked or cut? any exposed strands?

If the wire is still fine, you probably want to cut away the insulation covering each wire so that you can re-insulate each wire without fear that they will short out when submerged. Definetly more time consuming than just wrapping the whole thing with tape, but it wont work right if it happens to develop a short. Also use some quality tape such as 3M stuff, not the dollar store junk.

[techo]

The coating is cut and it appears as if the bare wie is nicked. I tried to photograph it. You can see my fingerprts, but the wire did not show up as well as I hoped.

[techo]

That particular wire won't be submerged, but will be on top of the boat. I am going to try the liquid electrical tape tomorrow AM. I wish I could have gotten to it today as it appears to be a perfect fishing day tomorrow. I won't be able to go again until next Tuesday.

Seriously thanks for the replies. Sounds like it isn't going to be too spendy even if I purchase a new cord.