1997 115hp power tilt and trim leak

[limacina]

I sprung a leak!
I haven't figured it all out yet. The guy at the boat yard says replace the whole tilt and trim unit, don't try to service any of the seals.
Any thoughts here?
I know the electric motor cover is rusty and may have broken through. the seals on the pistons look good. I now need to manually release the tilt and pull the engine up to service it. I'm thinking I'll have to pull it out. After the weekend is over of course.
Has anyone had leaks before? If it's a seal, I may try tranny sealer to buy the summer and replce the unit next winter when I'm not supporting the middle east with my gas tank every weekend

 

[OBJ]

Re: 1997 115hp power tilt and trim leak

Where exactly is it leaking from?

 

[limacina]

Re: 1997 115hp power tilt and trim leak

Heres the follow up:
I pulled the old trim/tilt off. It's actually a 1998 motor, the trim/tilt is called a fasttrack. Its quite a chore to get the old 3/4" pins out. I ended up peening them over and had to remachine them afterwards.
The leak was in one of the trim pistsons. On the upper part of the cylinder was a 1/4-20 plug with an oring seal in the base of it. I think they put it there to machine out the cross porting between cylinders. When I got to it, there was a 3/4" dia cone down to the seal where the stainless plug had corroded the alum cylinder away.
This problem may be limited to my boat due to poor instalation of twin outboards. Because they moved each motor off the centerline of the boat and the hull is V-shaped; they had to raise the motors up on the transom. This left the zinc anodes under the trim system high and dry 2" above the water line and essentially ineffective. I'm making up a could stainless brackets to lower them back into the water.
The fast-trac unit I purchased was remanufactured, I got it out of a local marina, they got it out of Wissconson somewhere.
It's a complete unit from new pins to new motor. Goes in very easy.
Charges were $699 and $25 s+h with a $100 core charge
I tried I boats first since I'd like to support this website but no luck.
Brand new was in the $1500 range, I'm not sure if it comes with a motor either??
Boats back in and working great. I'm dreading the other motor failing soon though. Not sure I can save it either.

 

[astropluto]

Re: 1997 115hp power tilt and trim leak

That stainless plug is a big problem.
I made one out of brass for mine.

 

[TwoBallScrewBall]

Re: 1997 115hp power tilt and trim leak

Hey,

I have this same problem. My engine is a 1997 200HP Ocean Pro. I already have a new Tilt & Trim ordered and should be here today.

On mine, late last year the motor would not go down. I put it down with the manual release and it worked OK after that, but it was the last trip of the season (to the boat ramp). Put the motor up and operated it a few times over the next couple weeks while winterizing.

So I went out to the yard last week and tried to move the motor, and nothing. Motor spins fine but no movement. So again I released the manual relief screw but it didn't work this time. I then noticed hydraulic fluid pumping out of what I thought was the relief screw. Turns out that the stainless plug at the top of the cylinder mentioned in the post above completely blew out of my trim cylinder, taking the threads and surrounding metal with it and leaving a quarter-sized crater in the trim ram. I found the plug laying in the bracket against the transom.

Is this something that happens a lot to these cylinders? How can I prevent it? I know my zincs are good and all of my metal thru hull fittings are grounded. Anything else or should I just hope for another 10 years before it happens again?