1994 Mariner 115 Trim Tilt wont go up

[COYOTE54]

Hi Folks,

Just the facts. First trip out, tilt came up in spurts like it was low on fluid, but went down fine. Thought it was low on fluid so I checked the level and it was fine, but the ATF was milky so I opened the manual release all the way and drained the fluid. I also manually raised and lowered the motor to purge the milky oil from the cylinder. Well, now, I cannot get the motor to raise. It will go down with the switch, and the motor sounds normal, but will not raise even though the tilt motor runs. The tilt motor does whine much faster when going up than going down, sounds to me like it's cavitating and not building any pressure. I'm assuming I have air in the system, but I'm pretty sure I have almost all of the air out as I have been manually raising and lowering the unit all the while topping off the fluid to the fill level until it will take no more.

Oh by the way, the milky ATF fluid appears to be normal airaeted fluid as my new fluid now looks that way after I run my pump for a while.

I hate these quick and easy adjustments that turn into days of work, and frustration, meanwhile the Steelhead are in the river. Grrrrrrrr:|

 

[COYOTE54]

Re: 1994 Mariner 115 Trim Tilt wont go up

Hi Folks,

Just the facts. First trip out, tilt came up in spurts like it was low on fluid, but went down fine. Thought it was low on fluid so I checked the level and it was fine, but the ATF was milky so I opened the manual release all the way and drained the fluid. I also manually raised and lowered the motor to purge the milky oil from the cylinder. Well, now, I cannot get the motor to raise. It will go down with the switch, and the motor sounds normal, but will not raise even though the tilt motor runs. The tilt motor does whine much faster when going up than going down, sounds to me like it's cavitating and not building any pressure. I'm assuming I have air in the system, but I'm pretty sure I have almost all of the air out as I have been manually raising and lowering the unit all the while topping off the fluid to the fill level until it will take no more.

Oh by the way, the milky ATF fluid appears to be normal airaeted fluid as my new fluid now looks that way after I run my pump for a while.

I hate these quick and easy adjustments that turn into days of work, and frustration, meanwhile the Steelhead are in the river. Grrrrrrrr:|

 

[COYOTE54]

Re: 1994 Mariner 115 Trim Tilt wont go up

Any thoughts anyone? A local mechanic mentioned that there is a little rocker type valve inside the pump mechanism of this style of trim/tilt that was beefed up after it was found to break often. Does anyone know about this?

THanks,
Tim

 

[Plainsman]

Re: 1994 Mariner 115 Trim Tilt wont go up

Did you only fill it with the motor up?

And Welcome to iboats!!! You will find the best and most helpful people here.

 

[COYOTE54]

Re: 1994 Mariner 115 Trim Tilt wont go up

I added ATF to the unit in the up position, then let it down, then manually raised it up, added more oil, I did this over and over until all the air was out and I could not put any more oil in. Did I break something when I drained the oil out, as it was working previous to that?

Thanks,
Tim

 

[COYOTE54]

Re: 1994 Mariner 115 Trim Tilt wont go up UPDATE

Re: 1994 Mariner 115 Trim Tilt wont go up UPDATE

Hi All,

First of all, don't listen to any high priced parts/service guys tell you that you need a $400 pump without them looking at your trim/tilt unit first. I was all set to fork over the dough, but decided to tear it apart first to see if there was anything I could do myself.

Well after 5 minutes of taking the unit off my motor, I found my problem. Apparently at one time the plastic fill plug had been crossthreaded peeling off a couple of plastic thread bits which got caught in the ball checks inside the pump. PROBLEM SOLVED after 2 weeks of head scratching and wallet watching.

There's nothing too scary inside that pump. If others are having problems, just get a nice clean, uncluttered space and pull the thing apart. The only tricky part is making sure the 2 spring loaded ball checks don't fly somewhere when you pull the 2 pump halves apart.

Good luck everyone.
Tim