Repairing a Power Trim Motor - 2003 225hp 4-Stroke

[Chinewalker]

A friend of mine had the complaint that the power trim had simply stopped working on her big Merc and asked me to take a look at it. Through a little bit of trouble shooting, I narrowed it down to the pump motor. Upon disassembly, I discovered that one of the magnets had slid down off the can and was jamming the armature.

 

[Chinewalker]

No Title

Further investigation revealed two more magnets had shifted inside the can and were all stuck together against the one magnet that had not come loose.

 

[Chinewalker]

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For the fix, I marked the three loose magnets for North & South, made up some spacers out of scrap gasket material taped together in a stack, and JB Welded the magnets back in place. The knife blade was used as the fifth bit of the last stack so I could jam it into place, compressing everything outwards and equally spaced. Gasket material doesn't slide very well into tight spots... :-( I'm not sure how critical getting them all 90-degrees really is, but they're just about spot on.

 

[wrench 3]

Make sure that you have clearance for the armature and let us know how it all works out.

 

[Chinewalker]

I spread the JB Weld pretty thin with that in mind. I'm hoping there's enough of a fudge factor to make it a non-issue. Will find out tonight when I put the motor back together. Thanks!

 

[Chinewalker]

I assembled the motor last evening and she works! I'm now waiting on some seals to finish the reassembly and get this beast outta my yard!

 

[wrench 3]

I'll have to file this one for future reference.

 

[Chinewalker]

Definitely! At a list price of over $300 and online at about $250 for the motor can, this cost me about $5 for the JB Weld (of which I used very little) and an hour's worth of time.