1988 Mercury outboard won’t trim up or down

[Mwilson18]

I recently bought a bass boat with a 1988 Mercury outboard. The trim motor was junk so I went out, bought a new one, installed it, and refilled the system with oil until it came out of the bleed hole in front of the trim motor. However, the hydraulic ram won’t trim up or down. I can lift the outboard manually no problem, so it’s almost like I’m not getting enough compression in the system. I can hear the motor humming/working so I would have to assume it’s a hydraulic problem? I also tried to take the trim motor out to see if I had it installed the wrong way but it’s suctioned in there and won’t pull out. Any help would be greatly appreciated. ​

 

[Chris1956]

Some of those replacement PTT motors have an adaptor that allows the motor shaft to drive the pump. If that is not installed, the motor just spins.

The motor should not stick into it's mounts. You likely need to remove it and see if it truly drives the pump. I normally needed to remove the starboard transom bracket to get the PTT motor off.

 

[Mwilson18]

Some of those replacement PTT motors have an adaptor that allows the motor shaft to drive the pump. If that is not installed, the motor just spins.

The motor should not stick into it's mounts. You likely need to remove it and see if it truly drives the pump. I normally needed to remove the starboard transom bracket to get the PTT motor off.

Thank you for your response. I was able to get the motor in with a long 5mm Alan attachment to get to the rear mounting screw, however it was quite a pain to do. I will look into removing the transom bracket, hopefully I can get some more leverage and yank the motor out of there to see how it’s moving/spinning. It’s in there pretty good.