1973 Johnson 65 hp tilt and trim motor problems

[jordan41084]

Hey Guys long time fan of iboats just joined because I made a major mistake today. I have learned so much from these forums. I am a home builder and now a halfway there boat motor repair enthusiast.
To get to the point i was and idiot and took the top off of my tnt motor to diagnose why i couldn't trim up. I tried to realign the the magnets and put it back together and the wires soldering came apart. I also noticed some black ooze pouring out of the motor. It didnt look like grease but was wondering what it could be. I know hydraulic fluid get cloudy when water gets in it but not this dark. any help on getting a new motor or if possible to rebuild would be great. Thanks, Jordan

 

[HighTrim]

Re: 1973 Johnson 65 hp tilt and trim motor problems

Go to your nearest dealer and ask them who they reccomend to rebuild the tnt motors. They send them out themselves usually and should know of someone in your area capable of doing it. Ive had a couple rebuilt reasonably. Short of that, you may need to order a new one if it is not rebuildable. Ill post a link of a guy that I like to use. Good luck.

http://www.maxrules.com/index.html

This is a 3 wire motor correct?

 

[jordan41084]

Re: 1973 Johnson 65 hp tilt and trim motor problems

Thanks so much for your quick response. It is a three wire. I have a company in town that re builds starters and may be capable. The problem is i would have to cut the wires to bring it in to them and would want to be sure that i can splice them together properly before i cut them and i also live an hour from any boat dealers. That makes it a little more difficult to head there being i have to run my construction business during the day and work on my boat at night. The o rings are also in terrible shape and i figured that could have been the cause of not trimming up.

 

[HighTrim]

Re: 1973 Johnson 65 hp tilt and trim motor problems

Im going to assume ofcourse that the first thing you did was check the level of the fluid in the resevoir, top up and bleed correct?

When you attempt to trim up, does the motor make any sound, or is there silence?

 

[jordan41084]

Re: 1973 Johnson 65 hp tilt and trim motor problems

The motor ran fine and i over flowed it with fluid. I was a dummy to ever take that top off to check the o ring after receiving the wrong advice. Now I just need to either try to re solder and realign the magnets myself without proper tools or find someone to do it. I messed up a perfectly fine motor by taking it apart and made it worse by trying to put it back together myself. Those springs are so tricky to set without proper working room. I have done many times on lawn mower starters but didnt realize the soldered wires would break so easily when i was reassembling. I read on hear that someone ran into the same problem. I know i can resolder myself but I have no clue what all that black oil/grease was.

 

[RRitt]

Re: 1973 Johnson 65 hp tilt and trim motor problems

The motor ran fine and i over flowed it with fluid. I was a dummy to ever take that top off to check the o ring after receiving the wrong advice. Now I just need to either try to re solder and realign the magnets myself without proper tools or find someone to do it. I messed up a perfectly fine motor by taking it apart and made it worse by trying to put it back together myself. Those springs are so tricky to set without proper working room. I have done many times on lawn mower starters but didnt realize the soldered wires would break so easily when i was reassembling. I read on hear that someone ran into the same problem. I know i can resolder myself but I have no clue what all that black oil/grease was.

you should take motor to auto starter place and get estimate for rebuild. they will be able to know which parts are worth keeping and which need to be replaced. But beware - some of the older J/E trim motors are so expensive to repair that the best overall value is throwing them in the trash and getting a stringer pump.

 

[jordan41084]

Re: 1973 Johnson 65 hp tilt and trim motor problems

I would love to know more about the stringer or a replacement for the part. A buddy and I worked on it today retacking wires and aligning the magnets and the top to the motor cracked. To say the least I made a big mistake even bigger. Lightning struck my shop today and we were working with lanterns to see. Not a great day for the boat.


Thanks for any info that you can provide.

 

[RRitt]

Re: 1973 Johnson 65 hp tilt and trim motor problems

I would love to know more about the stringer or a replacement for the part. A buddy and I worked on it today retacking wires and aligning the magnets and the top to the motor cracked. To say the least I made a big mistake even bigger. Lightning struck my shop today and we were working with lanterns to see. Not a great day for the boat.


Thanks for any info that you can provide.

J/E trim shipped with two different pumps. One was made by Prestolite and one was made by Calco. The Calco fixed a lot of problems that did not exist and the product withered and died. Parts are difficult to find and the Calco has devolved into an expensive headache. The Prestolite kept it simple and was used on everything from hydraulic RV levelers to outboard trim systems. The OMC stringer pump is the very similar to the Prestolite J/E trim pump. The J/E is used in a wet location so it is the waterproof version with isolated ground. The OMC goes inside your transom, has shorter wires, and uses chassis grounding. In a pinch you can modify the stringer pump to be waterproof and use it for JE trim.

 

[EricJRW]

Re: 1973 Johnson 65 hp tilt and trim motor problems

Did this Prestolite vs. Calco affect the 1993 (my bad, I saw 93 when I first read this thread - see below) 50HP Evinrudes too?

I'm having issues with my tilt and trim (http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?p=2869341) and the information above has proved to be very enlightening.

I'm no closer to solving my problem, but at least I know to be very careful. So jordan41084, I'm sorry to read of your dilemma, but thanks for sharing.

[edit] Well I just noticed this motor is a 73, for some reason my brain saw 93... Which is what I have... But I'm still curious.

 

[RRitt]

Re: 1973 Johnson 65 hp tilt and trim motor problems

Prestolite was used from 1972 through 1987. The waterproof versions have a waterproof aluminum cord grip directly threaded into the side of the field frame and a cast aluminum brush cover. The gasket material thickness was an integral part of the design and using the wrong gasket causes seemingly illogical problems. It was otherwise a very simple and straight forward what-you-see is what-you-get machine. The non-waterproof versions usually had a stamped steel cover and two wires with a rubber horseshoe grommet. The non waterproof version used a common ground through the motor frame and are sometimes mistaken for a 2w motor. If confused, you can look for the two large side screws that hold field windings in place. 2w motors do noit have field windings and they do not have the two large screws in side of field frame (aka housing).

Calco was used during mid-70's. It was dead by 1980. It was a trendy idea riding the wave rotary-mania that swept through mechanical engineering of that time. So I seriously doubt that it even existed in the 60's. It was not a simple machine. When you repair one you can quickly see that the designers got so consumed with doing it better that they lost sight of the basics. Run it until it dies then throw it out and buy a Prestolite.