Finally got a boat, so now the wife is happy! Now we just have to get it working all correctly so we can go fishing and make her really happy.

My question, if anyone could possibly help me, is about the tilt/trim. Kind of works, but not the way it should. Basically it will work for a few seconds, then it stops. A few seconds later, after I wiggle the motor, it will work again for a few more seconds. This happens when raising or lowering the motor. I can sometimes hear a low click when keying the switch when its not working. I can eventually get the motor up or down, but it's kind of pain in the butt.

Also, when lowering the motor initially, it doesn't fall with the action of the T/T pump. I have to manually push the motor down until it sets up against where the pump has gotten to.

The last thing is, there's a little switch mounted above the tilt/trim pump motor with a lever that looks like it would be pressed down when the motor is fully lowered. After all my messing around, I went ahead and broke off that lever while playing with it, but that didn't make any difference in the performance or lack thereof in my T/T.

Anyone have any ideas on this?

Here's a photo, if that helps:


and here's one with me holding the thingamajig that I broke off while playing with it.


any input MUCH appreciated! I'm a pretty handy guy, but I've never worked on a tilt/trim system so I'm not really sure on the ins and outs of them.

The leaver is a sending unit for the t-n-t guage. It has no other purpose than make a t-n-t guage show what position your motor is in. The electric motor in that picture is to say the least "SAD". It is highly likely that there is moisture inside causing all your problems. The click sound is the solenoids trying to make the motor work. It is pulling too many amps and has a thermol switch inside the motor that is shutting off the power to the brush assy. IN my opion, Without touching the unit, or running some checks, My 1st reaction is to replace the electric motor on the tnt.........

Aha! I'm so glad you told me what the sending unit was for, Mike! I was all ready to drop $70 on a new one, just in case that was causing my problem. But I'm pretty sure I can get by without a gauge which tells me the position of my motor, so that's an easy decision.

I just spoke to the guy from whom I got the boat, he says he thinks it's air in the system, does that make sense? His suggestion was to cycle it a few times with one person on the switch and one person giving a manual assist to raise and lower the motor, then to check the oil level. He said he'd run into that problem before and doing that took care of it.

Like Mike, I would say you have more than one problem. Looking at the trim unit, that top pin for the tilt cylinder may be sticking causing the down problem, when it only clicks you have motor or relay problems and you will be better off to change the trim motor and the relay box. Air will not cause all of this. Before you spend any money on this trim unit, inspect the fluid and if it is not clean (milky) you will need to replace the complete unit. GOOD LUCK

All I can say is we have an '85 70hp evinrude and it has been a great motor good luck.

matt

Thanks redchevy, it's actually helpful to know that I'm working with something that will be worth the trouble to fix.

Ok, the fluid is clean, thank god for that... It was full up, too, so not low. Although it is leaking just a little out of the top seal of the tilt cylinder. The pin does look like a mess, no doubt. Honestly, I can't even see how I'd get it out of there, it's severely rusted. And yeah, that's definitely an indication that it would be putting excessive friction...

anyone know any tricks for getting those pins out?

Ok, I've found a source for a reasonably priced pump motor, so I think that would be a really good investment right off the bat.

I'm also thinking I really need to replace the pin at the top of the tilt shaft... And it looks like it's going to be a real pain to get it moving.

Seriously, anyone have any great tips for getting a pin moving once it has rusted deep into aluminum?

Liquid wrench works good. Spray it on, let it sit, spray some more, let it sit, beat the mess out of it, spary some more. Got to keep working it loose.

By the way what did you pay for that motor psychsurf?

I paid $1800 for boat and motor:



Or did you mean the tilt pump motor? I haven't bought it yet, but I found it for like $65 on ebay, reman with a 1 yr guarantee.