motorguide trolling motor bracket easier unlocking and lifting

[keakar]

well I had the typical issues with crooked alignment on the locking pins of the gator mount getting jammed making it a PITA to raise the motor so after confirming everything was level and solidly mounted I did the file thing to free things up and now it no longer gets jammed.

anyway while testing operation I still found it took a lot of effort pulling the rope to overcome the spring tension on the rope. moving it by hand it was obviously not the spring tension or the slide doing it since it moved without undo effort so I looked at how the string was set up to pull on it . I noticed it just looked wrong because it went over a centering pin that I assume was there to keep the string lined up and pulling from the center and realized this was an uneeded extra drag to overcome to release the locking pins since it was so close to the slide point of attachment that it served no purpose since the string could not get out of alignment that close to the point of attachment anyways. so I untied the string and ran the string straight without going over this centering pin and retied it to the slide. it took about 40% of the effort away from releasing the locking pins. the string guide loop on the end keeps it centered so it pulls the string straight and evenly without that extra pin being used at all.

jerry rig, shade tree mechanic, whatever you want to call it, its a way to greatly reduce the effort you need to unlock and lift your motorguide motor.

just wanted to pass this info along in case someone finds it useful