1995 40hp Johnson tilts out of water in forward

[Sdad]

I have a 40 hp Johnson on my 1989 basstracker. I am having a issue keeping it in the down position when reaching high speeds or at holeshot. It will run and stay down sometimes, but then all of sudden it will start popping up on me when going fast or when I put it down on a start or holeshot. I have heard of tilt issues and motor popping up while in reverse but not forward. It has a lever that looks like it is supposed to lock it into position, but that seems to do nothing. Is the pump/motor going bad? Add fluid? Seals? Or what. It seems if the pump/motor was bad it should still stay down if in forward as the thrust would push against the back of the boat? Is the water pressure of moving forward enough to overpower the thrust of the prop? I am at a loss. Just bought the boat, want to avoid cost of bringing it in. Hoping for some ideas of a simple fix. Weird that it only happens sometimes. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

 

[Haffiman]

Re: 1995 40hp Johnson tilts out of water in forward

Is it electric trim and tilt, or the infamous 'Touch Trim' with a gas cylinder and valve?

 

[Sdad]

Re: 1995 40hp Johnson tilts out of water in forward

Electric

 

[Sdad]

Re: 1995 40hp Johnson tilts out of water in forward

What would be the first thing you would do? Try to add fluid?

 

[Rick.]

Re: 1995 40hp Johnson tilts out of water in forward

First thing I would do is check to see how close you are to bottom!! LOL. The lever you speak of should point to the bow to lock and stern to unlock. I thought those levers would only have come with motors with like mine (95-40HP tilt assist only) that have no power tilt/trim. It would make sense to me to have the lever pointed toward the stern for the power tilt/trim to work. Do you think your trim motor could be trying to lift the engine while you underway? You might try disconnecting the power to the trim and going for a ride to see if it stops lifting. This problem is a new one to me. Best of luck. Rick.

 

[todd57]

Re: 1995 40hp Johnson tilts out of water in forward

First thing I would do is check to see how close you are to bottom!! LOL.

That's exactly what I was thinking. Too funny.

 

[Haffiman]

Re: 1995 40hp Johnson tilts out of water in forward

I believe you may have some chafing on electric wires activating the trim motor.. With full power forward, no way the engine will tilt without an activated trim. Check the wires from trim-switch in handle to the box.

 

[Sdad]

Re: 1995 40hp Johnson tilts out of water in forward Now what!!!!!

Re: 1995 40hp Johnson tilts out of water in forward Now what!!!!!

Ok, so I took apart the throttle assembly to see if I could track wires and look for damage or pinch points. I didnt find much, but something interesting happened. I noticed that the alarm had been disconnected, so I plugged it in. No alarm sound. then I mas moving the throttle around and the alarm touched metal on the inside of the boat and alarm immediately sounded. Does this alarm have to be grounded to the side of the boat in order to work properly? or do I have some sort of weird short going on?

Anyway that is off topic of the power trim. I messed with the wires, pulled on them etc to see if it would activate the trim. There were a couple pinch points that seemed a little tight, but I didn't notice any obvious wear. In the motor itself the wires were laying in the bottom of outboard where it is a little oily etc....and some of them seemed to be taped up and not very well in spots with some exposed copper. So I will re-tape those areas and re string the wire in the throttle to see if that helps.

Does any of this seem concerning or out of the norm?

 

[Haffiman]

Re: 1995 40hp Johnson tilts out of water in forward Now what!!!!!

Re: 1995 40hp Johnson tilts out of water in forward Now what!!!!!

Pull out the relays in the power trim and do a test run. If all OK, must be some wire failure somewhere.

 

[Sdad]

Re: 1995 40hp Johnson tilts out of water in forward

Ok I am going to take the boat out tonight. When I disconnect, I can just do it at the throttle right, I dont need to do it inside the motor?

On my alarm issue, after a little research, I found that the horn gets a constant positive load and needs a ground to sound the horn, and that ground is provided by the thermal or other sensors, thus sounding the alarm if there is a problem.

Now my guess is this.....that when it touched the side of the boat it gets the ground it needs to sound the horn. So I am thinking the horn is working how it is supposed to, I just need to mount it so it doesn't ground out on the side of the boat??????

 

[Haffiman]

Re: 1995 40hp Johnson tilts out of water in forward

Pull out the relays from the motor to be sure.
Depends on your wireing.
The systems that have the horn inside the remote, the 'old' non system check with big red contact at the engine side, has a 3-wire horn. Positive (ign), neg and signal. The neg (-) is needed for the horn self-test, a short beeep when ign ON. The newer (System Check) has a horn connected outside the remote with a 2-wire contact.

 

[Sdad]

Re: 1995 40hp Johnson tilts out of water in forward

My alarm, only has 2 wires that attach. So, I just need to mount this somewhere so it doesn't touch boat metal right? Or is it suppsoed to touch metal and I have to check heat sensors etc... to make sure they are working properly? I hear of a lot of faulty heat sensors.

 

[Haffiman]

Re: 1995 40hp Johnson tilts out of water in forward

If alarm is making a beeep when ign is put ON, horn ok.
If you want to test sensors do the following:
Low Oil - run oil level down to about 1/6 of the tank, alarm should go off.
No Oil - hook up a separate fuel tank with 2% mix. Remove the oil-hose from the VRO pump and start the engine. No Oil alarm should go off after about 30 sec normally.
Over heat - Cylinder head had to be heated up to check this switch, alternative the switch itself is removed and heated up. Check temp when switch 'close'. (Use Ohm and multimeter.
Check wire harness: Ground the harness end of any brown alarm wire.