Is a trim circuit breaker popping cause for concern?

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Jul 10, 2019
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2008 Glastron GT185
Volvo Penta 4.3GL
Volvo Penta SX-A

Yesterday my son was out in the boat with friends. They reported running a normal electrical load (radio, blower motor, depth finder, trim). The power trim stopped with the drive unit in the mid range. When the switch moved it just clicked. I took a quick look at fuses, hooked up the battery to a charger and went to bed.

In the morning I had the battery's cells checked and the battery load checked, cleaned up corrosion on the battery terminals and all the connections. I looked at the fuses and in the daylight I could plainly see the trim circuit breaker sticking up. I pushed it back in and the trim ran like new.

Is the circuit breaker popping cause for concern? I replaced the trim motor last year so I'm slightly paranoid about trim problems. It looks like a 40A breaker so it's a real attention-getter.

Navin
 

alldodge

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Is the circuit breaker popping cause for concern?

Two reasons it can pop, either bad breaker or pump drawing to much current
 
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Thanks for the reply.

Could the corrosion on the terminals and contacts have caused a spike in amperage? I haven't found anything else out of order.

Is there any way to test the breaker?
 

alldodge

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Corrosion is resistance so as corrosion builds amperage drops. Something corroded will draw less then something clean

Is there any way to test the breaker?

Yes, need a variable resistor large enough to handle the amount of amps being drawn thru.. Then connect power to breaker and variable resistor to ground. Start with largest resistance and a amp meter. Start reducing resistance until current reaches max for breaker and see if it trips before or after
 
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A possibility that I just considered is that the wiring to that trim pump wires sit right next to the exhaust pipe. When I replaced the trim pump last year I used the old wires to pull the new ones through. They should be in the same position as the old wires but I have only a couple of hours on the engine since I replaced the pump. Does the exhaust get hot enough that the trim wires should be insulated from the heat?
 

alldodge

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Does the exhaust get hot enough that the trim wires should be insulated from the heat?

Normally no, but if they are laying against the exhaust when the water stops flowing and motor over heats it can get to hot
 
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I took a look at the trim wires with a cheap endoscope. It's hard to get where you want to look and often out of focus but I couldn't see anything obvious. The wires are right between the engine and the exhaust in some places but that's how it was before I started messing with it and they are short enough that there aren't many options on how to get them through. I'm assuming that's the way they came out of the factory and it shouldn't be an issue. Would putting a heat shield sleeve around the wires be a good idea or could that cause other problems?
 

alldodge

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The wires that are by the exhaust are the limit and gauge. The rubber there made from has a higher temp range
 
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Yesterday I took the boat out to see if the breaker would pop again. After we launched the trim worked fine. Didn’t really use it for about an hour of attempted wakeboarding. We stopped at a friend’s dock and shut down for maybe 10 minutes. We trimmed up to get there because it’s shallow by his dock. The boat launch is less than a mile away. We left and went straight to the launch (exactly what my son did on Monday). It trimmed down fine but when we slowed down and started trimming for the shallow water by the boat launch the trim quit (Breaker didn’t pop), 30 seconds later ran slowly, then trimmed normally up but wouldn’t trim down, then quit altogether. All of this was within about 2 minutes. Breaker did not pop, fuses were good, operating the trim switch just gave me clicking relays.

This morning I ran through this the troubleshooting guide for the SX/DP-S trim system from the Volvo Penta sticky. All the tests were good so I figured it must be the wires to the pump or the pump itself. I put my cheap endoscope down there again and found my problem rather quickly. The outer wrap on the wires is damaged. The pictures aren’t great but you can clearly see the insulation on the wires through that hole. It was in that area where I didn’t like the wires being constricted between the engine and the exhaust pipe.

I am definitely going to give myself more wire to work with and reroute it as much as possible. That’s a really cramped area and not fun at all to work in.
 

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alldodge

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That looks like corrosion, like the insulation was damaged during some work being done at one time, then over time it built up

If that's the limit wires then it should only effect going up, not down
 
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I did consider the possibility that I damaged the wires when pulling them through. That was only last year. Got it done just in time to winterize. Perhaps when I looked the other day I didn't have the right angle to see it clearly. It's tough to get the camera where I want it and that shiny rubber reflects the light from the camera. It's also possible that's not the only area that's damaged.
 
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This was the wire that was between my engine block and exhaust. Where it was touching the engine block every strand of wire was melted. I spliced and rerouted the wires. It started pouring rain just as I was finishing up so I haven’t run the trim yet. Tomorrow I should be back in business!
 

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alldodge

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To melt them the pump must have stopped moving water, in any case good to find the issue
 
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