Alpha one outdrive not going down, 2006 Sea Ray 175

[RandyJ]

Hope you guys have a little advice before I start with this one. Last year I replaced the trim senders, drive shaft bellows, exhaust bellows, and shift cable bellows. The leaking shift cable bellows had allowed water in the aft of the hull which also allowed water in the trim motor and reservoir. I was fortunate to be able to clean and dry out the reservoir and motor. Seems the motor did not sustain any damage... worked fine all summer till a couple of weeks ago. The trim began to be slow bringing the outdrive in/down. The pump seems to work fine raising the outdrive out/up. Now it is completely in the up position and I can hear the pump motor bog down a bit when I press the up button. When I press the down button I hear a whirring and maybe somewhat of a noise as if there is some air in the hydraulic system. The outdrive does not lower. I have my suspicions but would like to know what others with experience with this issue can tell me may be the problem. I certainly don't want to completely disassemble the system if I can simply replace or repair an easy or quick to fix part...

 

[Scott Danforth]

first make sure you have enough fluid

second, have someone stand on the drive when you are trying to lower it (could be crud in the oil)

worst case, unbolt the pump and take it to a hydraulics repair facility. its a standard oildyne 108 hydraulic power unit.

 

[RandyJ]

Scott. Thanks for the reply. It has plenty of oil in the reservoir, pumps up but won't pump down. Just pretty much think or hope it is crud in the reservoir. My second guess is the pump itself. I'm planning on seeing if reversing the lines will reverse the problem.... if it does then we know it is the pump, not the cylinders.

 

[RandyJ]

Update... when I disconnected the lines the outdrive went down... reconnected then tried to see what it would do. It would lower the drive but pump up just a little then act like it ran out of oil though the reservoir has plenty of oil.

 

[wahlejim]

Sounds like one of your check valves is getting stuck in the pump. Either rebuild or replace. If you go the rebuild method, have a shop do it. Some hydraulic shops will sell you rebuilt ones for relatively cheap if you turn in your old one for them to rebuild and sell. That is the method I would use.