Johnson 60 tilt/trim

[leftseat150]

I have an 1984 J60tlcre that I just repaired and re-installed the tilt trim unit on. It has a 3 wire motor and no relay's. In the course of hooking everything up, I began to wonder if I should add relays for up and down, to take some of the load off the thumb switch on the throttle lever. I notced that the main harness has 10 or 12 gauge wiring, while the pigtail from the thumb switch has 14 or 16 gauge wires. Can the contacts in the switch handle this amount of current? Or are they a common failure point without a relay. Any input will be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[RRitt]

Re: Johnson 60 tilt/trim

you can add a generic trim relay harness inside your engine and reduce the 12awg cable length to about 36". Using relays, the amperage through your switch will be reduced to less than 1A. In order for a generic 2w harness to support 3w trim motor you will need to replace the relays.

2w motors use a switched ground to reverse direction. To reverse4 direction an a 2w you just flip polarity. This is accomplished by using N.C. relays so that a wire is either 12v or ground, but never open.

3w motors have two separate circuits. One for up and one for down. Common ground is always connected to the motor. In order to support this function you need N.O. relays so that either blue or green is 12v but never both. Common ground must be connected to the black wire and/or motor frame only. If either green or blus is accidentally grounded then it is a short across the field coils and can ruin the motor.

The end result is that a generic trim relay wiring harness will support both 2w and 3w motors depending upon which relays you install. N.C. for 2w and NO for 3w. You can also just break off the center tab of an NC relay and turn it into an NO.