Alpha 1 gen 2 trim sender

[hankins]

My trim sender on my outdrive has a broken wire on the right side. the limit switch works fine, just don't have any indication of trim position.

what is involved in replacing the position sender.

this is on a 96 3.0L alpha 1 gen 2

Thanks

Jon

 

[Grub54891]

Re: Alpha 1 gen 2 trim sender

You need to pull the drive, then the pivot pins,and the transom end of the drive shft bellow. Then you can get to the retainer that holds the trim wires in. Go inside the boat,locate the wires where they came through,unhook them,tie a tag line to them and pull em through from the outside. Tie the line to the new sender and pull em back in,re- hook everything. Be shure to use bellows adhesive and the proper lock title on the pins.
Grub.

 

[muc]

Re: Alpha 1 gen 2 trim sender

The job flat rates at 4 hours. Most shops will add up 50% to that due to the age of the boat (this is because of possible corrosion and poorly done past repairs) the part is over $100.00 so this job could go $700.00 (depending on the labor rate in your area) --- a lot of money for a non- essential item.
The next problem is that most shops will want to replace all the bellows and shift cable if they haven’t been done recently. This is because bellows are an important maintenance item (one of those “pay me now or pay me a lot more if they fail”) and shift cables are a common failure point. This is because most of the labor overlaps so it is usually in the customer’s best interest to do both jobs at the same time.
That’s why when a customer asks about trim senders I always ask “when were your bellows last replaced and what kind of shape are they in?
Might be best to wait on the trim sender until your due for a bellows job.
Kind of a complicated answer to what seems to be a simple question.

That said --- it’s not a hard job for a DIY and most very experienced marine mechanics can do this job in less than 2 hours without taking the drive off.

 

[Don S]

Re: Alpha 1 gen 2 trim sender

Here are the instructions for replacing the sender and switch.

View attachment Trim limit switch install instructions.pdf

 

[hankins]

Re: Alpha 1 gen 2 trim sender

well after I posted this, I went to my local marine supply house and bought the trim switch and sender kit for $100.
Then I started reading some posts about other guys doing this job. I decided to not attempt doing this at this time, but then I decided to just look at it a little more and decided to try and do it without taking the drive and gimbal off. I was able to do the job without taking the drive off. It was a pain I must say, but it is doable. took me around 3-4 hours to do it, and now my trim indicator works! now I just got to get the speedo working.

Thanks for all the info and advice

Jon

 

[fat fanny]

Re: Alpha 1 gen 2 trim sender

Way to go and just with a lil effort and time you saved a ton of $