Tilt and trim bugged out

Skytex83

Cadet
Joined
Feb 7, 2013
Messages
23
Ok ive got an 82 70hp evinrude with what I assume is the original t&t. Put my boat in and it was working ok. Hit the button to lower the motor after I got away from shore and it messed up. Started going down and wouldn't stop. Now it won't do anything and is stuck down. I Can't lift the motor at all. I checked to see that power is getting to the solinoid and it is. Beyond that I know nothing of the details of how this works or what to check. I'd atleast like to pick my motor up before I haul it anywhere.
 

louiefl

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Apr 11, 2012
Messages
119
Re: Tilt and trim bugged out

Might be a bad switch - that would be the cheapest. Could be a corroded wire, a bad relay, or a bad trim motor. Pull the cover off the engine and have someone actuate the switch. Do you hear a clicking noise? If so, it could very well be the trim motor. If not it is probably something else but the trim motor. Start by checking for voltage at the switch, and where it connects under the engine cover. Just trace the wires back from the trim motor. There should be a connector that goes to the motor, you can jumper it to a battery and then reverse polarity to see if it goes up and down.

You can manually raise the engine by loosening a screw on the starboard side of the bracket that mounts the engine to the transom. There should be a large slotted head screw. Might take some PB Blaster and a big screwdriver. Only need to loosen it a turn or two.
 

Skytex83

Cadet
Joined
Feb 7, 2013
Messages
23
Re: Tilt and trim bugged out

No clicking from the motor. Nothing at all from it. I suppose tomorrow I'll start the oh so fun task of tracing wires. A diagram would be a vast help if anyone might have one. By eye I followed the line from the battery to the solonoid in the case in the fuel tank/battery compartment. Like I said, at that point it had juice but nothing coming out. I'll need to get more than a test light to see if anything is coming from the switch on the throttle handle. I almost suspect it as it acted like someone was holding the down switch and wouldn't let go of it, then something burnt out to make the motor stop trying to go down. I'd say it was a fuse but I can find no fuse in this system.
 
Joined
Feb 17, 2012
Messages
2,906
Re: Tilt and trim bugged out

A few basics on a 3 wire trim system: To trim down which is black to ground and green (grass) to positive at the motor. Up uses more power so the switch closes a solinoid and the solinoid supplys power to the blue (sky) wire. so in worst case you can unhook the hydraulic motor and put black to ground and blue to positive and the motor should raise if the hydralic motor does not run then the motor is the problem and you will have to undo the bleed screw to raise the motor then surport the motor to get it home. Yours problem is most proberly the fuse in the picture as it was trimming down which uses that fuse.
 

Skytex83

Cadet
Joined
Feb 7, 2013
Messages
23
Re: Tilt and trim bugged out

ok so if the fuse blowing is what stopped it from going down, any idea what could have caused it to get stuck going down?
 

RRitt

Captain
Joined
Mar 30, 2006
Messages
3,319
Re: Tilt and trim bugged out

i think that you have a bad switch and the fuse blew to prevent the motor from burning out.
 

Skytex83

Cadet
Joined
Feb 7, 2013
Messages
23
Re: Tilt and trim bugged out

Ok little update. Today I went and found some fuses (a pain to find), and picked up a marine quality 3 way toggle switch seeing as to how finding the one on the handle may be problematic, and certainly expensive. First I replaced the fuse. Everything started working fine. Played with it a little and going down, again, it burnt out the fuse. Admittedly I put a 10amp rather than the 20amp that was in it since I was testing and didn't want to blow anything serious. However, it only blew it after adding fluid back to the reservoir and my lifting and lowering it 3 or 4 times at max extensions. Nothing hung up like it did at the lake. I replaced the burnt up 10 with a 20 and resumed making sure no air bubbles were in my lines. Everything seems to be working fine. Still leaves me curious as to what originally happened. Tomorrow if I have time, I'm going to run all of the wires and look for rubs/possible points where it could be submerged when the back gets some water. Thinking, I'm not quite sure I'd remembered to turn my bilge pump on and there was some water leaking in. That's another adventure to track down although the tube connecting the livewell to the pipe that comes out of the boat is def suspect. Still I'm thinking perhaps water got into a wire somewhere to cause the hangup.

On another related note, the piece that comes out to support the motor while you haul the boat (using it till I can afford a transom saver) doesn't want to stay tucked up against the transom when I go to lower the motor after moving it out of the way. It kinda flops back down just enough to hang up the motor just before it gets verticle. Anything I can do to tighten this up? I looked for screws/nuts and didn't see anything. It does appear to have a grease fitting. Perhaps adding grease would stiffen it up? I hadn't thought to add any since it's very very loose and I tend to think of grease as a lubricant only.
 
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