jyoungblood
Recruit
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2019
- Messages
- 1
New to this forum, hope I am posting this to the right section. I have researched this issue and have not been able to come across any threads similar to my situation, so I am asking for any input. First off, my boat is a 2006 Caravelle 187 FS with a 4.3 Volvo Penta GL.
I purchased the boat last spring from the original owner with 120 hours on it, all original and in great shape.
Now to get into the problem, with the back story.
Last year while out on the lake, I got caught in a pretty good rain storm. After the rain had cleared, we stopped and did some fishing. My son got his fishing line caught on the lower unit, so I had to trim all the way up to get down there and unhook his line. No harm or damage was done, I didn't pull the line trying to get it out, so I know I didn't pull any wires back there. . After doing this, I got back in the boat to try and leave, and I could not trim back down. I could trim up, and the relay was clicking, but down was totally dead, no relay. I tapped on the trim motor and nothing happened. I did note that when I would press the down trim button, I would see a voltage change on the voltmeter on the dash despite everything else being dead. Eventually after pressing the trim switch up and down, I lost all trim, as I assume something got hot and shut down. Got towed back to the boat ramp and took the boat out. After getting back home, we swapped the relays for up and down, and no change. Both relays were good to go. Up trim was good, down trim no power, no click at the relay. While going through all the wiring, I noticed two red wires down by the relays twisted together with no wire nut or anything covering them. We threw a tester on it and it was getting 12 volts. I ended up figuring out the prior owner had popped the 10 amp fuse while on the lake, so he snipped the wires and twisted them together to get back to the boat ramp and he never fixed it. I can live with that and plan to replace this with a fuse again. Back to the trim issue, it would remain intermittent for the remainder of the summer. It seemed like the down trim always worked when the boat was initially put in the water and as time went on throughout the day and adjusting the trim, it would eventually quit working. At the end of the summer, I noticed while running the boat, I had water dripping down by my feet, coming out from under the shifter. I attributed this to being caught in a few rain storms while trailer or being on the lake. The issue got worse and eventually there was so much water, I knew something was up. I got the boat home and stuck my head under the shifter, and noticed the speedometer tube had a hole in it, and that it was the culprit of the water coming in. This water had gotten all the wire connections wet. I opened up the plastic corrugated tube that housed all the wires and I let everything dry out all winter. What I could not tell was if the hole came from rubbing in the linkage over time from shifting, or if wires for the trim got hot and melted it, because it did have a melted appearance. This has been puzzling to me, like which came first, the chicken or the egg. I ended up deleting the speedo tube so the water issue has been resolved. I hoped resolving this water issue would address the down trim problem, but it didn't. I pulled the boat out yesterday after keeping it garaged and dry all winter long. Boat fired right up and ran fine. After shutting down, I cycled the trim a few times, and all was well but eventually, the down trim went intermittent again. In the past, I have always been able to hold down on the switch, and bang on the shifter and get it to start working. This leads me to believe its the trim switch in the shifter/throttle handle, because when I push the button, the relay does not do anything, (but again, I see a drop in volts on the voltmeter) I'll bang on the shifter and it'll start working. I also went back and checked all the connections and everything seems connected nice and tight. I unplugged and plugged everything back together, but I noticed the wiring around the trim motor was a little warm. Is that normal?
Sorry for the very long post. In a nut shell, these are my questions:
If the down relay is not clicking when the button is pressed, I assume its not getting power to it, so why am I seeing a change in the volts on the dash?
Also is it normal for the wires to get hot if you continually cycle the trim? I noticed last year while holding the switch down (while it wouldn't work), a small amount of smoke came from the wires back by the trim motor. (this makes me believe theres power going back there even if the trim isn't moving)
My trim motor is the two wire set up, blue & green. I also don't have a trailer trim switch, just FYI. What is the missing piece in this deal? Last bit of info, I called the prior owner and asked him about the down trim, and before I finished the sentence, he interrupted and said "it's in the handle" and told me that he had the same issue and would just push the switch "in" more and it would work. So if it truly is the switch in the handle, why are these wires getting hot?
Thanks for the help in advance. Sorry again for the lengthy post, but it's a lot of details.
I purchased the boat last spring from the original owner with 120 hours on it, all original and in great shape.
Now to get into the problem, with the back story.
Last year while out on the lake, I got caught in a pretty good rain storm. After the rain had cleared, we stopped and did some fishing. My son got his fishing line caught on the lower unit, so I had to trim all the way up to get down there and unhook his line. No harm or damage was done, I didn't pull the line trying to get it out, so I know I didn't pull any wires back there. . After doing this, I got back in the boat to try and leave, and I could not trim back down. I could trim up, and the relay was clicking, but down was totally dead, no relay. I tapped on the trim motor and nothing happened. I did note that when I would press the down trim button, I would see a voltage change on the voltmeter on the dash despite everything else being dead. Eventually after pressing the trim switch up and down, I lost all trim, as I assume something got hot and shut down. Got towed back to the boat ramp and took the boat out. After getting back home, we swapped the relays for up and down, and no change. Both relays were good to go. Up trim was good, down trim no power, no click at the relay. While going through all the wiring, I noticed two red wires down by the relays twisted together with no wire nut or anything covering them. We threw a tester on it and it was getting 12 volts. I ended up figuring out the prior owner had popped the 10 amp fuse while on the lake, so he snipped the wires and twisted them together to get back to the boat ramp and he never fixed it. I can live with that and plan to replace this with a fuse again. Back to the trim issue, it would remain intermittent for the remainder of the summer. It seemed like the down trim always worked when the boat was initially put in the water and as time went on throughout the day and adjusting the trim, it would eventually quit working. At the end of the summer, I noticed while running the boat, I had water dripping down by my feet, coming out from under the shifter. I attributed this to being caught in a few rain storms while trailer or being on the lake. The issue got worse and eventually there was so much water, I knew something was up. I got the boat home and stuck my head under the shifter, and noticed the speedometer tube had a hole in it, and that it was the culprit of the water coming in. This water had gotten all the wire connections wet. I opened up the plastic corrugated tube that housed all the wires and I let everything dry out all winter. What I could not tell was if the hole came from rubbing in the linkage over time from shifting, or if wires for the trim got hot and melted it, because it did have a melted appearance. This has been puzzling to me, like which came first, the chicken or the egg. I ended up deleting the speedo tube so the water issue has been resolved. I hoped resolving this water issue would address the down trim problem, but it didn't. I pulled the boat out yesterday after keeping it garaged and dry all winter long. Boat fired right up and ran fine. After shutting down, I cycled the trim a few times, and all was well but eventually, the down trim went intermittent again. In the past, I have always been able to hold down on the switch, and bang on the shifter and get it to start working. This leads me to believe its the trim switch in the shifter/throttle handle, because when I push the button, the relay does not do anything, (but again, I see a drop in volts on the voltmeter) I'll bang on the shifter and it'll start working. I also went back and checked all the connections and everything seems connected nice and tight. I unplugged and plugged everything back together, but I noticed the wiring around the trim motor was a little warm. Is that normal?
Sorry for the very long post. In a nut shell, these are my questions:
If the down relay is not clicking when the button is pressed, I assume its not getting power to it, so why am I seeing a change in the volts on the dash?
Also is it normal for the wires to get hot if you continually cycle the trim? I noticed last year while holding the switch down (while it wouldn't work), a small amount of smoke came from the wires back by the trim motor. (this makes me believe theres power going back there even if the trim isn't moving)
My trim motor is the two wire set up, blue & green. I also don't have a trailer trim switch, just FYI. What is the missing piece in this deal? Last bit of info, I called the prior owner and asked him about the down trim, and before I finished the sentence, he interrupted and said "it's in the handle" and told me that he had the same issue and would just push the switch "in" more and it would work. So if it truly is the switch in the handle, why are these wires getting hot?
Thanks for the help in advance. Sorry again for the lengthy post, but it's a lot of details.
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