Trim issue on brand new 4.3L Mercruiser in a 2016 Stingray 198LX

[LockDownLance]

Good day,

I have a 2016 198LX sterndrive with 4.3 Mercruiser. On Saturday, friends and family were out swimming in the middle of the lake with the boat off. In the midst of all the sounds, I noticed what sounded like a motor running. I crawled back in the boat and checked bilge and blower switches. I can't exactly recall how long the noise lasted as kids were being pretty noisy, radio blaring, etc. Sound stops and in just a bit we decide to head back.

Whether or not the above paragraph has anything to do with what happened next, I have no idea: But, when it was time to leave the Trim (down) would not work. The relay would click but the pump wouldn't run. Tilt up worked just fine. In the confusion of troubleshooting we managed to tilt the prop all the way up and rocking the switch back and forth was only raising the L.U.

I had a screwdriver on board and bypassed the trim switch on the back of the boat. No change. I ended up using the shaft of the screw driver to jump across from the red lug near the pump to the green (down) wire and the motor ran and we were moving again.

My dealer is mailing me a new relay/solonoid as they're 500 miles away. But... I'm curious what might have caused this... if the solonoid is actually bad... how to prevent this from happening again.

Thoughts on the noise I heard? Thoughts on further troubleshooting?

Cheers!
-Lance

 

[alldodge]

I see it as a one in a million and it might not be the relay. The problem might be the connection between the trim switch and the relay, might even be the switch in the throttle handle.

jump across from the red lug near the pump to the green (down) wire

Can also be the rubber plug where the harness connects to the trim pump

 

[LockDownLance]

So I understand... there's a one in a million chance it's NOT the relay?

If it were the rubber plug where the harness connects to the trim pump wouldn't jumping like I did not work? You can see in the picture the red positive and the blue and green wires going to the pump. I jumped from the red lug over the green and the pump moved down as expected.

I'm just baffled as to what happened in the first place.

Thanks again!

 

[Bt Doctur]

The 3 prong plug goes to the control handel to operate the solenoids. If the solenoid was clicking and nothing was happening, thats a bad contact internally.
jumping from the main power feed to either the blue or green motor wire is just a jumper ,thats all

 

[LockDownLance]

So the question I still have is.... Because jumping from main power to motor operates motor. And one inch away the relay will click but not operate... could it be ANYTHING other than the relay? Sorry to be redundant. I'm just a little leery after getting stranded on the water with 4 kids aboard near dark. I'd like to know what happened but may never figure that out.

 

[alldodge]

If your jumping from the main RED electrical wire to the larger Green/White then your bypassing everything, including relay. If you jump from the main RED to small Green/White then your bypassing switch and plug, but testing the relay

 

[LockDownLance]

Awesome. AllDodge thanks!

Here's what I found.

Hot to big green... trims down
Hot to small green.... click click nothing

Same result as using trim switch.. BUT...

In my original post I mentioned a sound I couldn't identify on the lake the other day. It happened again shortly after jumping the pump just now... It was the pump motor, lasted just a second or two, didn't move the lower unit and was half the normal volume of normal pump operation. I'm positive this is the sound I heard at length on the water the other day. I jumped the big wire and little wire several times and never while it was jumped across did I hear that sound... but I heard it 10 or 15 seconds later 2 or 3 times. Just a one or two second buzz then nothing.

Just a bad solenoid and next? Or could something else be causing that?

Thoughts?

Thanks again.

 

[Pete104]

Does this boat have a switch at the transom for tilting up & down?

 

[alldodge]

Just a bad solenoid and next? Or could something else be causing that?

Time to buy the lottery ticket, from what I see your solenoid went out on it.

Hot to small wire, a click, hot to large wire it works.

Might be something else, but I think you have it