Mercruiser Tilt/trim problems

natron80

Recruit
Joined
May 7, 2009
Messages
5
Hey everyone, this is my first post here. I appreciate any help... I picked up an '80 Crestliner Crusaider with a Mercruiser 470 a few days ago. I've been able to get the motor running good, etc. And am looking forward to getting it on the water.

I started working on the tilt/trim tonight. It didn't work when I bought it. I filled up the reservoir and was somewhat surprised when I hit the switch to go up, it came up just fine. When I tried to move it back down, it went down for while, but stopped. I could hear the motor slow down like it was down all the way, so I went back to check it out and saw that it didn't go down all the way. I ran it up and down a couple times to try to bleed any air out of the system to no avail. If I helped it by standing on it it would go down with the pump running, but not without.

I disconnected the rams at the aft to try to figure out what exactly was going on. Both cylinders go up (extend) just fine. Going down, both cylinders retract about half the way, but then one stops and once the other retracts all the way, the other starts pushing out, actually extending. They're both hooked up correctly, I verified that. I bled both cylinders and all the lines per the instruction manual (pain in the butt and cost me about $5 in fluid), but it still does the same thing. My guess is that I have a bad cylinder, but I though I'd check here first to see what everyone thinks. Also, just FYI, while troubleshooting, I switched the cylinders and the problem remained with the cylinder, regardless of which side it was connected to. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Nate
 

"G"

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
May 2, 2009
Messages
150
Re: Mercruiser Tilt/trim problems

Natron-
From what I recall about opposing reactions on trim cylinders they need bleeding but that may be because of bad O ring seals.
Rebuild the cylinders if need be but first try running the motor in the down position with the cap off the reservoir. Once it runs steady then be sure you fill the reservoir and run the trim up and down a few more times.
If that works you had air in the system. If it still reacts with opposing cylinders, rebuild the cylinders and try again.
 

natron80

Recruit
Joined
May 7, 2009
Messages
5
Re: Mercruiser Tilt/trim problems

Hey G

Thanks for the quick response. I did the entire bleeding process with the fill screw open. I'm pretty confident that there was no air in the system. As far as having a leaking o-ring... that sounds plausible. Another thing that I noticed is that after I bled the system and was running it up and down, the first time down, it went all but about 1.5" before it started extending. the second time it was worse, and kept progressing until it wouldn't retract at all. Maybe that will help the diagnosis. Thanks a lot.

Nate
 
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