1978 Johnson (javelin) 85 HP Tilt & Trim Issue

[nh5111]

I have a 1978 85HP Johnson OB with power tilt/trim, it is the unit with the center shaft that lifts the motor and two rams for the trim. The motor is on the port side and the reservoir is on the starboard.

The problem is when I am lowering the motor, it is very slow. Going up is no problem at all, takes about 20-30 seconds if that to go all the way up, but going down is another story. Sometimes if moves quite a bit going down, but it can take up to 20-30 minutes to go down. I had the unit serviced at a local marina, they took apart the unit, replaced all the seals and got it to work, but warned me about going down that it moves very slowly, said that it might have to cycle through a few times. I have raised and lowered the motor several times now and still moving very slow going down. The marina told me there is a lot of fluid that needs to move around? I didn't think there was that much fluid in this system.

Any thoughts on what could be causing the problem of lowering the motor? I could understand if there was a problem with going up, because of the power it takes to lift the motor, but I though going down would be the easy part.

 

[emdsapmgr]

Re: 1978 Johnson (javelin) 85 HP Tilt & Trim Issue

Possible the trim switch is going bad. When going downward, all the electrical power goes through that switch. (On the up movement, it goes through the single solenoid.) If the switch contacts are dirty/carboned up, it may not be transferring power. You could try to wire around the switch for temporary testing purposes.

 

[nh5111]

Re: 1978 Johnson (javelin) 85 HP Tilt & Trim Issue

Thanks for the info emdsapmgr...I will do some more troubleshooting and your suggestion. Would it still be possible that the switch is going bad if I hear the motor running? If I just hold in the down button, I hear the motor running and the will either move very slowly or not at all, but sometimes if I just click it, it moves a little at a time. Also, sometimes it helps if I click on the up button and then try the down button again. Now that I am writing this out, your suggestion is making more and more sense.