alpha one wont go down.

[stratcat88]

long time reader .thank you for all your help with my bass boat. now i have a ocean boat and i need some. We bought a 25ft. Chris-craft scorpion 254 looked lile it was in good shape. got it home and started cleaning it up and now the outdrive wont go down. The trim pump is a saej1171 marine pump. It is stuck in up position. Pump runs but nothing happens. I tridd bleeding the lines and nothing. Tbhe traer switch works but i found they didnt have the portside limit sqitch hooked up. Finding out my dream boat has a few more issues i have to work on too. Like why did the ignition coil burn out and the horns dont work etc.... Shes sitting u der two co onut trees with my lites all rigged up. I am having a lot of fun till now. So please help!thanks tim.

 

[Bondo]

Re: alpha one wont go down.

long time reader .thank you for all your help with my bass boat. now i have a ocean boat and i need some. We bought a 25ft. Chris-craft scorpion 254 looked lile it was in good shape. got it home and started cleaning it up and now the outdrive wont go down. The trim pump is a saej1171 marine pump. It is stuck in up position. Pump runs but nothing happens. I tridd bleeding the lines and nothing. Tbhe traer switch works but i found they didnt have the portside limit sqitch hooked up. Finding out my dream boat has a few more issues i have to work on too. Like why did the ignition coil burn out and the horns dont work etc.... Shes sitting u der two co onut trees with my lites all rigged up. I am having a lot of fun till now. So please help!thanks tim.

Ayuh,.... Welcome Aboard,... Have a Fat friend jump up, 'n down on the drive as the down button is pushed...

The valvin' in the pump gets stuck when stored under pressure of full up...

To stop it from happenin',.. run the down button a second or 2 after runnin' it Full up...

 

[achris]

Re: alpha one wont go down.

long time reader .thank you for all your help with my bass boat. now i have a ocean boat and i need some. We bought a 25ft. Chris-craft scorpion 254 looked lile it was in good shape.

We don't need to know what the boat is. We need to know what (in this case) the drive is. Serial number is best.

got it home and started cleaning it up and now the outdrive wont go down. The trim pump is a saej1171 marine pump.

SAE-J1171 is a marine rating, it means the pump complies with SAE-J1171 standard. You will also find that on marine starter motors and alternators. What is the pump? Does it have a metal reservoir or a plastic one, is the reservoir square or round?

It is stuck in up position. Pump runs but nothing happens.

it could be what Bondo said, or it could be corroded end caps in the trim rams. You still need to employ the assistance of a fat friend.

I tridd bleeding the lines and nothing. Tbhe traer switch works but i found they didnt have the portside limit sqitch hooked up.

The limit switch is only in circuit for DOWN, not UP

Finding out my dream boat has a few more issues i have to work on too. Like why did the ignition coil burn out and the horns dont work etc....

Need for more information on the engine (again serial number please) to even start to diagnose that.

Shes sitting u der two co onut trees with my lites all rigged up. I am having a lot of fun till now. So please help!thanks tim.

Chris......

 

[stratcat88]

Re: alpha one wont go down.

the pump has 2 solonoids on it, round and the bottom looks like a oil filter. its mounted on a bracket with 2 hoses hooked up to it. no quick connects.and it all metal. it hung up when i tried the trailer switch.the # on the outdrive is 25668. cant find the engine #.chris, all this started when i hooked up the cabin sink pump motor. it blew the fuse out when i plugged up a light in a 12v access on the panel. then the ign. coil burned out trying to start the engine on the muffs.i thought i was going to do some minor cleaning and be on the water by now. so much for turn-key.thanks very much for your help. tim

 

[stratcat88]

Re: alpha one wont go down.

well i tried it and its still up.is their anything else i can try? thanks bondo. tim

 

[Don S]

Re: alpha one wont go down.

Post the Merc serial numbers you have been asked for. Or at least the year of your boat, what engine, anything that will help us figure out what you have. Pictures would even help at this point.

So far all we know is you have a trim pump that is safe for use in the engine room (J1171) and you have a 25' chris.

 

[stratcat88]

Re: alpha one wont go down.

Post the Merc serial numbers you have been asked for. Or at least the year of your boat, what engine, anything that will help us figure out what you have. Pictures would even help at this point.

So far all we know is you have a trim pump that is safe for use in the engine room (J1171) and you have a 25' chris.

i hope this is it. 14016381. also i'm trying to get some pictures on here.the trim pump is all metal and the bottom looks like a oil filter with 2 solonoids. i don't see any place to put oil in it either. its old but its running just won't bring down the outdrive.

 

[Don S]

Re: alpha one wont go down.

No, that is not a serial number, pictures are easy How to Post Pictures - The Basics

A year of your boat????? What engine?

 

[stratcat88]

Re: alpha one wont go down.

1985 chris-craft scorpion 254. 260hp v8 mercruiser, alpha one outdrive. thunderbird ignition.i went on that post and watched the movie. i'm on a i-mac and it wont let me get to photo-bucket. i'll figure some other way to post them.thanks

 

[stratcat88]

Re: alpha one wont go down.

 

[achris]

Re: alpha one wont go down.

The serial numbers will be an alpha followed by 6 digits.. Like B512345... You'll find one on the engine, one on the drive (port side on the upper housing) and one on the transom housing. Post all three, we'll sort out which is which...

Trim problem. It's messy but at this point I don't think you have much option. Disconnect the 2 hoses running into the pump. The drive should drop down and oil will run everywhere in the boat. It's only hydraulic oil so it's not so much of a problem, or just lay out a ton of rags and soak it up as it comes out.once the drive is down reconnect the hoses and re-fill the pump. try going UP a little, then down again. Once you know it is working correctly both ways, trim it full UP (but don't over run the pump for too long) and down all the way, refill the pump.

As for the coil burning out when you ran the sink pump.... Oh boy! I just love the clown who wired THAT boat.... You need to get the engine electrics and the 'other' electrics COMPLETELY separated.... There is NO good reason to run accessories from the engine harness. Run a pair of power wires from the battery switch, up to the back of the dash and onto a pair of rails, one for positive the other for negative. Now run anything that is not the engine from those, and ONLY those. Once you have that done you can start troubleshooting the electrical problems....

Chris.........

 

[stratcat88]

Re: alpha one wont go down.

The serial numbers will be an alpha followed by 6 digits.. Like B512345... You'll find one on the engine, one on the drive (port side on the upper housing) and one on the transom housing. Post all three, we'll sort out which is which...

Trim problem. It's messy but at this point I don't think you have much option. Disconnect the 2 hoses running into the pump. The drive should drop down and oil will run everywhere in the boat. It's only hydraulic oil so it's not so much of a problem, or just lay out a ton of rags and soak it up as it comes out.once the drive is down reconnect the hoses and re-fill the pump. try going UP a little, then down again. Once you know it is working correctly both ways, trim it full UP (but don't over run the pump for too long) and down all the way, refill the pump.

As for the coil burning out when you ran the sink pump.... Oh boy! I just love the clown who wired THAT boat.... You need to get the engine electrics and the 'other' electrics COMPLETELY separated.... There is NO good reason to run accessories from the engine harness. Run a pair of power wires from the battery switch, up to the back of the dash and onto a pair of rails, one for positive the other for negative. Now run anything that is not the engine from those, and ONLY those. Once you have that done you can start troubleshooting the electrical problems....

Chris.........

ok i took the 2 lines off the the pump and it still wont go down. don't know what else to do. i'll let you know what i come up with. still can't find those damm #s

 

[Bondo]

Re: alpha one wont go down.

ok i took the 2 lines off the the pump and it still wont go down. don't know what else to do. i'll let you know what i come up with. still can't find those damm #s

Ayuh,... With the lines off, did ya try to manually, physically move the drive down or up,..??

If it still tightly bound, pull the rams off, 'n see if they're saltcrust bound up at the glands/ seals....

Or,... The drive is Seized at the hinges...

 

[series60]

Re: alpha one wont go down.

Look here for the outdrive model number.

​

 

[stratcat88]

Re: alpha one wont go down.

Look here for the outdrive model number.

View attachment 181866​

thanks for the info. i' check there. i just checked out your project and man are you talented! nice job. thanks again! tim

 

[Radarman68]

Re: alpha one wont go down.

If your drive is still up, and it sounds like you already pulled off the hydralic lines, put them back on /reversed/ on each ram. The down circuit only builds about 80 PSI, where the up circuit runs around 300 PSI. My boat had the same problem last week and once I reversed the up/down lines on BOTH sides, and hit the up/trailer buttons, the drive went down. just dont limit out the drive. If it stops moving, stop right then. This is a good solution when the fat man is YOU and you dont have a helper to hit the buttons..

Before you try to lower the drive, make sure you grease the various fittings, and spray some lube on the exposed part of the ram, including the seal area first!

 

[achris]

Re: alpha one wont go down.

If your drive is still up, and it sounds like you already pulled off the hydralic lines, put them back on /reversed/ on each ram. The down circuit only builds about 80 PSI, where the up circuit runs around 300 PSI.

No, the down circuit is about 1500 and the up is 3000psi. But the advantage of the UP is it's working on the full area of the piston whereas the down has a smaller sutface area...

 

[Don S]

Re: alpha one wont go down.

,

 

[stratcat88]

Re: alpha one wont go down.

been on emerg. service and have not had time to work on boat. the othernite i sprayed the rams with wd-40. this morning i had my son stand on the drive and start pumpin his legs a llittle bit while i hit the down switch and finally it went down then back up then down again. thank you guys you were right. now onto the motor. pulled ign.coil. going to install a new one this week. went to miami boat show sat. and the ser#s on the merc cruisers are above the starter. i will look today for all the #s thanks again. tim










,

finally got it down.srayed it with wd-40 the other nite. this morning i had my son stand on drive and start pumpin his legs a little bit and she went down. you guys were right. thank you very much.now onto the motor. going to install new coil this week. i bypassed pressure switch on water pump in cabin but i still got to figure out where they wired it up to. went to miami boat show and saw the mercruisers. the ser.#s are right above starter. will post every # i can find. thanks again tim.