CMC marine tilt plate relays advice?

[pcrussell50]

first, not sure if this goes here or not. it IS a repair and maintenance question, and it IS used with a 135hp evinrude v4, sooo... here goes...

i have a cmc tilt/setback plate with my aforementioned 135hp evinrude. the other day, while motoring around the lake, it stopped working via the up/down buttons. it was almost full down/in when it stopped working. that put me in a pickle because the skeg would drag on the ground when loading on the trailer. and towing would be impossible. it was a nice warm day, and still light out, so i set about troubleshooting. when i pushed the up button, the up relay clicked. when i pushed the down button, the down relay clicked. yet in both cases, the motor didn't tilt up or down. i found this baffling. finally, i took the two tilt pump leads and grounded them directly to the batter terminals and it worked fine. if i reversed the leads the tilt motor ran the other way... so i conclude that it's not the tilt pump/motor.

sooo...

the tilt pump/motor works
and
i can feel the relays click

where should i look next?

-peter

 

[JB]

Re: CMC marine tilt plate relays advice?

Look at your wiring, Pete. If you bypass the switching system it works, so something in the switching system is preventing enough current getting to the motor.

I doubt that it is one of the relays because the other would work.

I think it is either in the +12V wiring to the relays or in the ground return to the engine block. Look for corroded connections, corroded wires or even a broken wire.

Good luck.

 

[pcrussell50]

Re: CMC marine tilt plate relays advice?

Look at your wiring, Pete. If you bypass the switching system it works, so something in the switching system is preventing enough current getting to the motor.

I doubt that it is one of the relays because the other would work.

I think it is either in the +12V wiring to the relays or in the ground return to the engine block. Look for corroded connections, corroded wires or even a broken wire.

Good luck.

thanks, jb. no doubt you're right. in fact, what else can it be, right? i was just reading a .pdf of the manual and i found an obscure circuit breaker all the way in the back, in the troubleshooting faq. apparently, it is a resettable thing, even though the reset button is not obvious in color, shape, or location. hmph... that will be the next place i look when i get back out to the lake to work on my boat.

i should have read that .pdf BEFORE i posted here.

-pete

 

[JB]

Re: CMC marine tilt plate relays advice?

You might be surprised at how many boaters learned something from your thread that they may need one day, Pete.