Tommy in Wilton
Cadet
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2009
- Messages
- 6
1996 Yamaha C85TLRU.
The problem: The Yamaha tilt on this old boat has always been a bit flaky. I've seen for years a "strawberry milk-shake" look to the fluid, and knew that I probably had bad seals. Also, it needs fluid to be added on a regular basis, like...once per month. Otherwise, the motor turns and buzzes...but nothing happens, up or down.
OK, I dealt with it. It is an old boat bought from a neighbor, the idea was to see how much we would actually use the thing before committing to buy something newer and nicer. And more expensive!
Well, last July or so, the tilt quit working as it usually did. Only this time...after I added fluid, it still didn't work.
OK.
Unscrew the manual release, take it to the shop, apply money, I thought. WRONG. The manual release was stuck too!
I flailed and floundered for a while, and finally decided to try to "force" fluid into the system, since it acted like it was full of air. Lo and behold! It worked. I forced the plastic tip of the oil bottle into the reservoir, squeezed like hell, and had the Ultimate Home Appliance [girlfriend] push the down button. Problem solved! For a week....
Grrrr!
Listlessly, I retired to a tiny local boat shop who's name sounds a whole lot like West Marine. They had this snake-oil stuff called "Pure Oceans Tilt & Trim fluid" which is purported to be biodegradable and vegetable oil based, so it is supposedly A-OK for the environment- :watermelon:
"What the hell; Olive oil works real good on pizza, why not put it in the tilt on the boat!" I said, chuckling to myself, figuring that at this point it couldn't do any more damage. The boat was stuck, tied to my dock in Fort Lauderdale, not going anywhere fast.
Holy ben-wa balls Batman! Guess what-
I did the same trick with the olive oil that I did with the red tilt fluid: I forced the plastic tip into the hole, made a solid seal, then pumped until the resulting pressure pushed the tip out. I put the plug in real quick, and suddenly...
::church organ sounds::
The tilt worked. Perfectly!
I pulled the boat from the water and brought it into the driveway on the trailer. I opened the reservoir and used this olive oil fluid to thoroughly flush out the system. The old tilt and trim fluid was Ford mercon automatic transmission fluid, which of course is red. This new stuff is clear, so I flushed until it ran clear. Some gunk came out, but not a lot. Since I have done this, the tilt has worked perfectly!
What I wonder about is how this stuff effects all the seals. I suspect it is pretty benign stuff, but has anyone had any experience with this biodegradable vegetable-based tilt fluid? It has, in one fell swoop...solved all my problems!
Thanx in advance!
The problem: The Yamaha tilt on this old boat has always been a bit flaky. I've seen for years a "strawberry milk-shake" look to the fluid, and knew that I probably had bad seals. Also, it needs fluid to be added on a regular basis, like...once per month. Otherwise, the motor turns and buzzes...but nothing happens, up or down.
OK, I dealt with it. It is an old boat bought from a neighbor, the idea was to see how much we would actually use the thing before committing to buy something newer and nicer. And more expensive!
Well, last July or so, the tilt quit working as it usually did. Only this time...after I added fluid, it still didn't work.
OK.
Unscrew the manual release, take it to the shop, apply money, I thought. WRONG. The manual release was stuck too!
I flailed and floundered for a while, and finally decided to try to "force" fluid into the system, since it acted like it was full of air. Lo and behold! It worked. I forced the plastic tip of the oil bottle into the reservoir, squeezed like hell, and had the Ultimate Home Appliance [girlfriend] push the down button. Problem solved! For a week....
Grrrr!
Listlessly, I retired to a tiny local boat shop who's name sounds a whole lot like West Marine. They had this snake-oil stuff called "Pure Oceans Tilt & Trim fluid" which is purported to be biodegradable and vegetable oil based, so it is supposedly A-OK for the environment- :watermelon:
"What the hell; Olive oil works real good on pizza, why not put it in the tilt on the boat!" I said, chuckling to myself, figuring that at this point it couldn't do any more damage. The boat was stuck, tied to my dock in Fort Lauderdale, not going anywhere fast.
Holy ben-wa balls Batman! Guess what-
I did the same trick with the olive oil that I did with the red tilt fluid: I forced the plastic tip into the hole, made a solid seal, then pumped until the resulting pressure pushed the tip out. I put the plug in real quick, and suddenly...
::church organ sounds::
The tilt worked. Perfectly!
I pulled the boat from the water and brought it into the driveway on the trailer. I opened the reservoir and used this olive oil fluid to thoroughly flush out the system. The old tilt and trim fluid was Ford mercon automatic transmission fluid, which of course is red. This new stuff is clear, so I flushed until it ran clear. Some gunk came out, but not a lot. Since I have done this, the tilt has worked perfectly!
What I wonder about is how this stuff effects all the seals. I suspect it is pretty benign stuff, but has anyone had any experience with this biodegradable vegetable-based tilt fluid? It has, in one fell swoop...solved all my problems!
Thanx in advance!
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