Last weekend while fishing at Sinclair I got my jig hung on some line near a dock. When I got it loose I let the line fall back into the water. It got on my prop as I started to move and I got all of it off that I could see. i checked it today – thank goodness I remembered

To get the prop off, I used a pair of pliers to loosen the nut on my Motorguide Trolling Motor. You can buy a tool for this but a pair of pliers, opened a little and used like a wrench, works fine. You can do the same thing in reverse to tighten the nut when finished.

Take the nut off by unscrewing it, you will have to hold the prop while unscrewing the nut. After taking the nut off the prop should slide off the shaft. You may have to tap it on the back side to get it off. There is a pin in the shaft that goes into a slot in the prop hub and it sometimes sticks. Be careful you don’t lose the pin. See the picture of it below.

After I cleaned off all the line I checked the white line barrier. It helps keep line from getting into the prop shaft seal. if line gets into the seal and damages it water will get into the motor and it will rust and stop working.

Time to put the prop back on. First put the pin into the hole in the shaft

Look inside the back of the prop hub and you can see the slot the pin has to go in. You can see the ridges from the front of the hub to help you line it up. Slde the hub down on the shaft until it is tight on the pin. There should be little gap between the outside edges of the prop hub and motor housing when it is all the way down on the shaft as it should be.

Put the nut back on the shaft and tighten it. Use your pliers to get it very tight. I have lost two props because I left the trolling motor in the water and idled across a cove. The water pressure turned the prop backwards, unscrewing it. That is why I have a spare prop, nut and pin in my boat and why I never idle with the trolling motor in the water!