need advice on Trim indicator gage

[Mike New]

Hi Guys I live in Sydney so my summer season will shortly be starting.
I have a 5lt GXI-F with SX drive (sep 2006) fitted to a Monterey 194. Sports boat
I seek info on the electrical characteristics of the leg angle sender (trim indicator)
On my boat the trim gauge is integral with the pitot tube driven speed indicator and this is where I have a problem!!!
As with many of these things the pitot tube becomes blocked and is a continual pain in the arse, so I have purchased a GPS driven analogue marine speed
indicator. So I now need to replace the trim gauge with a separate unit.
I enquired of my friendly Volvo agents and was told that a 21/16" dia.trim gauge for my drive would cost me $250 plus 10% GST!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have just ordered a VDO model A2C53417260-S for $43.00 plus postage. which is stated to be suitable for Volvo.
Can anyone inform me of the electrical voltage range which the leg transducer generates from fully down to fully up???
I have asked the Volvo people for info but no body seems to know (or wants to know)

 

[Scott Danforth]

the VP trim gauge also has the electronics in it for the trim that drives your limit relay, etc. hence the reason VP trim gauges are expensive.

the sender in the leg is only a resistance (3 wire potentiometer) your best bet is to measure that, or get the resistance from the manual. I would be lying if I remembered what mine was.

 

[Mike New]

Hi Scott
Thanks for the advice,
After much research and studying the circuits, it seems that the output from the variable resistor goes to the large common multi pin plug and also to the ECU
presumedly so as to drive the limit relay. I cannot think why they would rout the output all the way up to the trim gauge through the electronics and then back to the ECU relays. Maybe there is something not shown on the circuits.
The existing trim gauge only has one input from the leg variable resistor and the +12v input. So it would seem that electrically, the trim gauge coil
(small ammeter) is driven from the variable current produced as the leg moves up and down.
It might be that the gauge has a current amplifier but there seems to be no apparent additional wire to carry this output back to the ECU.
I have been given the values from a marine electrician where I store the boat, which may be useful to others.
Fully up---------146ohm
Fully down-------11ohm
So this would provide a current variation of 12V/(146-11)= 77mA which would seem about right for this application.
The VDO unit which I have ordered, I am told is suitable for values of 160ohm to 10ohm so is slightly more sensitive.

 

[Scott Danforth]

I have been scratching my heads at what VP has done over the years with respect to gauges, trim, etc.

your VDO gauge will not have the outputs for trim limit, so you will have to pay attention when operating.

 

[Mike New]

Hi Scott,
I now have the SELCO manual for engines from 2003 to 2012 I will study the circuits and check out what you say.

 

[Scott Danforth]

the OEM manuals are much better than the Seloc manuals

 

[Mike New]

Where can I get the OEM manuals for my specific 2006 5Lt V8 GXI-F engine and leg drive??
Even this web site seems to mainly only offer the SELCO manuals and I cannot locate a manual for my engine on the VOLVO web site or here.
It would seem that in the past 5 years or so manufacturers leave the publishing of their tech manuals to the independants

 

[Scott Danforth]

right from Volvo Penta

http://www.volvopenta.com/volvopent...lication_search/Pages/publication_search.aspx

you can also view many of the manuals on http://boatinfo.no/ when the site is back up.