Evinrude Motor won't tilt, not making any noise at all...electrical or mechanical?

[brad614]

My port side motor will not tilt up when I went down to the boat today. I hit the tilt switch and nothing happens. It makes no noise at all. I checked over the fuses in the boat and switched the relays and still nothing. Any ideas??

 

[Joe Reeves]

Re: Evinrude Motor won't tilt, not making any noise at all...electrical or mechanical

Check the RED wire that leads to the PTT switch(s) for voltage. There should be 12v present at that wire.

Trace the wires from the electric motor back to its connector and unplug it. Run two small jumper wires from the battery directly to the two electric motor wires. Connected one way, the electric motor runs in one direction, connected the opposite way, the electric motor reverses itself.

Let us know what you find.

 

[brad614]

Re: Evinrude Motor won't tilt, not making any noise at all...electrical or mechanical

Am I correct to assume the PTT means Port trim tilt? Am I able to use the switch on the motor itself since it is easiest to get to?

 

[Will Bark]

Re: Evinrude Motor won't tilt, not making any noise at all...electrical or mechanical

No, he told you to unplug the trim motor and put jumper wires in the connection to the trim motor and go dirctly to a battery; jumped one way runs the motor in one direction and reversed runs it the other way; no switch involved.

 

[Joe Reeves]

Re: Evinrude Motor won't tilt, not making any noise at all...electrical or mechanical

PTT means "Power Tilt Trim". If the switch at the engine doesn't cause the engine to raise/lower, then yes, check that switch for voltage.

 

[brad614]

Re: Evinrude Motor won't tilt, not making any noise at all...electrical or mechanical

Thanks a lot for the help!! I'll post the outcome later today or tomorrow.

 

[brad614]

Re: Evinrude Motor won't tilt, not making any noise at all...electrical or mechanical

I have power all the way down to the last length of wiring going to the tilt motor. Since the boat is in a slip, I can't trace it any further. I also supplied 12 volts straight to the wires, and nothing happened. I guess the motor went - is it normal for them to just fail without notice?

 

[Will Bark]

Re: Evinrude Motor won't tilt, not making any noise at all...electrical or mechanical

Don't know if it's normal but that's what mine did, it was 12-13 years old and the salt water got it. Good luck.

 

[boobie]

Re: Evinrude Motor won't tilt, not making any noise at all...electrical or mechanical

Rap the t/t mtr with a small hammer and see what happens. It could be stuck or dirty brushes.

 

[Joe Reeves]

Re: Evinrude Motor won't tilt, not making any noise at all...electrical or mechanical

Do the tap a electric motor trick as suggested by Boobie. If that causes the motor to suddenly start running, you've got a intermitent electric motor.... repair or replace it.

If jumper cables hooked directly to the electric motor does not result in having the motor to run, regardless of tapping or not.... it's still a case of repair or replace.

Is it normal to fail in that manner? I've found it to be that way.

 

[brad614]

Re: Evinrude Motor won't tilt, not making any noise at all...electrical or mechanical

I want to make sure I understand about testing it with jumper wires. I need to run two jumpers from the battery - one from ground and one from hot. I should apply the ground to one terminal of the connector, and positive to the other and see if the tilt motor reacts. Reversing these wires at the connector should cause the tilt motor to run the opposite way. Am I correct?

 

[Joe Reeves]

Re: Evinrude Motor won't tilt, not making any noise at all...electrical or mechanical

That is correct..... jumpers from the battery terminals directly to those two wires leading to the electric motor.

 

[brad614]

Re: Evinrude Motor won't tilt, not making any noise at all...electrical or mechanical

Turns out that the power distribution panel on the engine is bad. We have power going in but none coming out. Switched it temporarily with the one from the other engine and it worked fine. Now I just have to find the part...

 

[Joe Reeves]

Re: Evinrude Motor won't tilt, not making any noise at all...electrical or mechanical

And the light at the end of the tunnel appears........

 

[brad614]

Re: Evinrude Motor won't tilt, not making any noise at all...electrical or mechanical

Here is a picture of the part that is bad (yes, the picture IS right side up! They just have the relays upside down! ). It is over $400 new without the relays! I found a used one on E-Bay for $75, so I am going to give that one a shot. Wish me luck!

 

[Joe Reeves]

Re: Evinrude Motor won't tilt, not making any noise at all...electrical or mechanical

Are you sure that whole thing is shot....... not just faulty relays or a voltage failure to that unit?

Obviously I retired before that engine was manufactured as I've never seen a unit such as those you pictured, but I find it hard to believe that one would be expected to fork out hundreds of dollars due to a PTT failure.

 

[RRitt]

Re: Evinrude Motor won't tilt, not making any noise at all...electrical or mechanical

I have power all the way down to the last length of wiring going to the tilt motor. Since the boat is in a slip, I can't trace it any further. I also supplied 12 volts straight to the wires, and nothing happened. I guess the motor went - is it normal for them to just fail without notice?

If you have a 2wire motor ....
and you hotwired it directly to a battery ...
and it did not spin ....

then your motor is bad. no if ands nor buts. hotwired motor does not spin = bad motor.

when water gets inside and starts to cause rust a lot of things can happen. One of them is for the thermal breaker to kick open and never close back. another is for a debris particle to get between brush and armature. Both situations cause a motor to stop working suddenly. they usually make a little grinding noise before they break as rust particles get caught between magnets and spinning armature.

 

[brad614]

Re: Evinrude Motor won't tilt, not making any noise at all...electrical or mechanical

The tilt motor works fine when powered directly. There is power from the switch going into the panel. I switched each relay out with ones from the other engine and still nothing. Finally I swapped the entire panel, and the problem transferred to the other engine. In other words, the port engine was fine, and the starboard engine had no tilt or trim. In my opinion that indicates that it has to be the panel, right? Or am I totally missing something?

 

[Wingedwheel]

Re: Evinrude Motor won't tilt, not making any noise at all...electrical or mechanical

I would really look at those relays before shelling out for a whole new panel.

 

[Joe Reeves]

Re: Evinrude Motor won't tilt, not making any noise at all...electrical or mechanical

The engine that has a properly operating PTT unit now..... obviously those relays are okay. Have you tried switching all of those relays into the other relay manifold/panel?

Strange.... OMC/Bombardier had a perfectly good 2 relay setup for years to operate the two wire PTT motor and it worked fine. Puzzles me why they would change to a complex looking expensive thing like the pictures shown above.