Drive tilt works out of water, won't go down or come up when in water

[PitaBoat22]

I have a 1983 Invader boat with a Volvo Penta AQ125a 4-cyl engine. The drive tilt works fine when the boat is sitting in my driveway - drive will go up and down with no problem. However, when I place the boat in the water and try to lower the drive, sometimes it works fine and other times it doesn't lower until it suddenly drops - which is just a bit scary. When I try to raise the motor so I can pull the boat out of the water, the drive does not raise. Any ideas as to first things I need to do to assess this problem?

 

[PitaBoat22]

Re: Drive tilt works out of water, won't go down or come up when in water

I have read that my problem might be related to a battery power issue and this is possible. I just replaced the battery - it was 12 years old - but haven't had it in the water since, so not sure it that will solve my issue or not. What else should I be checking?

 

[Don S]

Re: Drive tilt works out of water, won't go down or come up when in water

Sounds like the pivot pins where the drive pivots up and down may be corroded and not allowing the drive to move up and down as easily as it should. Remove the pins, clean things up and put in new bushings.

 

[PitaBoat22]

Just to wrap up this particular issue - I have not had this problem repeat since I replaced the battery. So, bottom line.....just needed a new battery.