Help with Green Box Fish Lok-a-tor

[Tumbleweed60]

Hi All, new to the forum and looking forward to ice in East Central Wisconsin. I did some ice fishing over the years, but now that I am nearing retirement, Lord willing, I plan to do more this winter and in the future.

Question on an old Lowrance Green Box fish Lok-a-tor I recently acquired. I cleaned off the battery contact board and with 2 brand new batteries it powers up. It flashes briefly, then nothing while the bulb and motor spin. Doesn't matter how I adjust the dials, transducer plugged in or not. Any ideas on what I should check next?

There appears to be a crack in the bulb at the inside corner, but I am not sure. Have to look into it more closely this weekend. However, the bulb does light up briefly, it just doesn't stay on. The battery meter pegs, so I know the batteries are good and making contact. The motor runs, a little noisy, but not too bad.

Anyway, though someone might be willing to help an old newbie. I used to have a vexlar and kick myself for selling it. The newer LCD depth finders do nothing for me. If I ditch this one, I will be looking for a flasher to use in the winter and the summer in the boat.

Thanks in advance for the help! 
TW60

[DR.SPECKLER]

I have one but am no help to your problem.but i cut the wires to the old  2 battery 6v system and use a 7ah 12 volt battery.

[Tumbleweed60]

Yeah, if I can get this working I'll probably do that later. I took a chance on this for $10, so I didn't want to invest a lot to give it a try. I was thinking of getting a Garmin Strike 4 since it has a flasher mode, but am not sure I could see it very well while fishing. I'm also looking at the Marcum M1 since it is slightly less than the Vexilar. I may just be better off not messing with this and biting the bullet. I find it ironic (conspiratorial?) that all of these flashers start at $300. Kind of like the price of gas this morning. Everywhere the same price, 10 cents more than last night. Hmmm...

Anyway, if anyone wants to chime in on the Marcum vs Vexilar vs whatever, feel free.

[Jkoht]

Half a dozen in 1, six in the other. I have both marcums and vexilars. I have the marcum vx1 that is the earlier version of the m1 if I'm not mistaken. What I like about it is that is has the bottom zoom feature which you don't get with the base model vexilar. Not sure if it comes with the fl12, but it does on the fl18, but now you're up three models and up in price. The marcum has been good to me so far and I wouldn't hesitate to pick one up on a good sale.

[Ekruger01]

I say go with the garmin, For under 150 bucks you can use the open water ducer and make do. I sold all my FL8's for the kids and picked up two of them. No regrets.

[Spider1]

well, being close to retirement you should also have a bit more wisdom. Put the green box on a shelf as a decoration and go get a Vex. Or tell the Mrs you neeeed a new vex for Christmas. That's what I usually do. And yeah, I'm close to retirement too. I have a Humminbird Ice-45  but I have a Lowrance 4x Chirp on my kayak, it also has an ice fishing mode with an LCD flasher. Best of both worlds but the 7X is even better. That reminds me, I gotta get that Christmas list started 

[hawg]

Green box really doesn’t work for much except finding depth. Don’t spend any more money or time on it. JMHO

[DR.SPECKLER]

Mine marks fish, bottom and jig but all in red.I wouldn't put money into it either.i have the open water ducer with my unit but the ice ducer would be nice to have if i didnt have modern day tech finders and flashers

[Tumbleweed60]

So after further investigation on Saturday the unit turned out to be junk. There was a crack in the bulb and one of the brushes was broken. Anyway, the guts went in the garbage. I got a metal box for my 10 bucks that I'll just use as a bait box after I insulate it and paint it.

As far as the depth finder goes, I'm planning to do without. They are not in my budget anyhow since I still have to get an auger. Thanks for all of the helpful opinions.