1989 mercury xr4 150 keeps blowing trim solenoids

[pdrhodes57]

I just bought a 1989 venture bass boat with a mercury 150 and I’m having trouble with my trim system. I was on the water a day after I bought it and the up trim stopped working. I decided it was my solenoid, replaced it and fixed the problem. I took it to the water the next day and my trim worked fine for probably 3 hours, then same thing it will trim down but not up. I can jump my solenoid and it works, just like last time. I’m stumped at this point and would like some input from someone that knows more than me about boats. Thanks so much

 

[sam am I]

It's hard to "blow up" a solenoid........If you didn't end up with defectives ones (It happens, been there done that some years ago, they were from Napa) then maybe your trim system is using too much current and melting them internally? Do the bad ones still "click"? If not, either the contacts are melted/fused or the control coil opened up.

If they still click and don't work, perhaps defective (bad tolerances) or excess current is prematurely pitting/arching the contacts away. I'd guess melted/pitted due to my guess of excessive current.........

 

[pdrhodes57]

Thanks for the reply! They don’t click, the up trim just randomly stops working after a few hours of use. I’m thinking maybe (hopefully) I got a defective one. I’m gonna try a new one from my local marine shop today.

 

[sam am I]

Weird....Normally defective's fail early due to crap contacts due to poor tolerances but they continues to click.... Control coils (makes the "click" happen) and such don't usually fail.

Thinking perhaps your control switch or its wiring is the problem....Did you try raising the motor with the motor's trim switch on the cowling?

 

[pdrhodes57]

Yes I have. It was the same result on all switches, down works fine, but up doesn’t. I just replaced the solenoid with another and it’s working for now.