merc power trim wont work

[EBBTIDE182]

I have a 92 ebbtide 182 with a 4.3l merc and alpha one gen 2 outdrive. I had a local marine shop put exhaust bellows and shift cable bellows on this spring and when i got it home and 2 weeks later while changing the engine oil i couldnt get the lower unit to raise back up. I started messing with wires wiggling them and nothing happened. I had moved the throttle lever and couple of times and did some other things and then it started working just fine. A week later i took it to the lake and the trim worked flawlessly until it came time to raise it all the way up to take the boat out. Wiggled wires on the trim unit and it started working. Getting ready to go on vacation in a week and a half and the trim will not work now. I had a dead battery thought that was the problem but i installed a new one and it still dosent work. I have voltage to the solonoids and when i probe the wires to the trim motor the blue and white and green and white both show a ground connection as well as the black wire in the middle. if i jump the solenoids and go right to the colored wires the motor runs. I am kind of confused at this point. Is it possiable that a limit switch on the lower unit is messed up or is the switch back on the throttle lever?

 

[Don S]

Re: merc power trim wont work

You should have taken it back to the guy that replaced the bellows right away. He may have not set the trim limit switch properly or at all.
Does the trailer button work? If it works using the trailer mode. Then you need to adjust the trim limit switch. The instructions for adjusting it is in these installation instructions.

View attachment Trim limit switch install instructions.pdf

 

[EBBTIDE182]

Re: merc power trim wont work

No when it dosent work neither the trailer button nor the up button works. I started checking wires for voltage at the little three prong connector and when i would probe the blue wire it would start working to full trim up and when i would trim it back down to full down then it wouldnt work again. This time i wiggled the connector and it started working again full up and back down then wouldnt do any thing. wiggled again and it worked. did this a dozen times. Im thinking that my three prong connector could be bad. i put some dielectric greese in the terminals to see if that would help. seemed to help it a little but still had to wiggle the connector. how ever i noticed the trim gauge did not work but i adjusted it and it works now. I might have to double check the limit switch.

 

[Don S]

Re: merc power trim wont work

Then have a look at this file, it also contains the wiring diagram.


View attachment A1G2 Trim Troublelshooting.pdf

 

[EBBTIDE182]

Re: merc power trim wont work

i guess im confused on what the 110 amp fuse is. alls i can see is a 20amp inline and then i have a circuit breaker up on top of the engine. could i take the 3 prong connector out and wire direct to the solenoids?

 

[EBBTIDE182]

Re: merc power trim wont work

ok here is an update. I cut the plug out of the equation and the lower function works all the time. However the up nor trailer button still dosent work. I havnt tried testing the wires as its hard to do with one person. i will test wires tonight and report back. Im also planning on checking the trim limit switch.

 

[Magnus Wallner]

Re: merc power trim wont work

I'm jacking this thread as I have similar problems.

I just bought the boat and the PO told me that the UP switch didn't work so he used the Trailer button instead. Not a deal breaker.

Today I couldn't get the trim to work at all. Solenoids are not clicking. I happened to have a multimeter so first I checked the switches, three cables, and UP, DOWN and Trailer all worked fine - or at least I got a BEEp out of the meter for all three functions (why didn't UP work before?). I found and checked the 20 amp fuse - ok. I then measured the voltage at the socket where the switches connect and I got 7 volts. After looking at the diagram I can't see a reason for only getting 7 volts so I suspect corroded terminals may be the culprit.

I'm not sure where else to start, perhaps bypass the trim limit switch? But how does it work exactly, and how does the Trailer function work - do I raise the outdrive more with Trailer than with UP?

 

[EBBTIDE182]

Re: merc power trim wont work

Ok I found my problem. I thought t was the three prong terminal down by the trim motor because after wiggling it would start working. Come to find out when I wiggled it I was moving one of the grounds on top of the top solenoid which in return the nut was loose. Tightened it up and every thing works fine. I would start there at least it fixed my problem