1992 Force 120 power tilt/trim - blew a seal??? and trim piston cover issues

[Mytox]

Aside from having only the top three SS screws connecting the trim cover and now the piston's out of alignment and does nothing...seems to be stuck from the lid not being square, I had just topped up the reservoir which was low and cycled the tilt part of the system a couple times to bleed it, and last time when it got to the top of the cycle, something popped and the motor gently fell back down to rest on the trim piston.

Oops Now I have two problems.....

 

[Mytox]

Also, can anyone suggest a method to lift the engine manually? It seems to be locked where it stopped after failing and falling and I might need to trailer the boat but can't with the engine down. You'd think if there was a blown seal the engine would lift unimpeded. Anyone know why the unit failed and how I can fix it? I had topped up the reservoir to the point where it was running a bit from the bottom of the filler hole. The reservoir/pump unit was not perfectly 90 degrees vertical/level but I had the front of the boat down as far as it would go to compensate.

The pump motor seems to be running fine, but no hydraulics after something popped.

thanks guys

 

[Mytox]

I was just talking to an outboard mechanic and he says I over-pressurized one (both?) tilt pistons causing fluid to by-pass the piston seal. He says the reason i can't manually lift the engine is because of the fluid on top of the piston causing it lock (likely got that wrong, but it's as far as I can recall). He says I'll need to loosen one of the hydraulic line(s???) to release the pressure. Also, I ran around Yellowknife (pop 20,000) looking for the 1/4 - 20 X 1 3/4 machine screws/bolts for the trim pump housing, but couldn't even come close. I'll need to specially order these. Apparently they're common???