I’ve got a mercruiser i/o and today when preparing to load the boat on the trailer the engine would not trim up but the pump will run if you push the down trim. Upon inspection the resevoir for the tilt / trim pump looked like it was full of eggnog. I had to leave the boat at the dock until I can figure how the water got into the resevoir. Anyone have any suggestions as to where to start diagnosing the issue? Can the system be drained and flushed without having to disassemble the whole thing? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
While your fluid does need to be changed, it sounds like you have a bad solenoid. Had the exact issue on my Mercruiser last year.
Would the solenoid still click if it were bad? I noticed it makes a single click when I press the up button but the pump motor doesn’t engage.
I don’t remember if mine clicked or not. There are two solenoid’s, probably mounted on or somewhere very close to your pump. I am no expert but it didn’t take me too long to pull the bad one off and stick a new one on there.
Or you could just swap the two around and see if it will go up and not down…
Bring on the 2-3 chop!
Check your ground wires too. I had a new solenoid put on and still was having the same problem as you. Turned out…bad ground wire.
Umm, you gonna eat that?©
Thousands have died to save my freedom. Only one has died to save my soul!
What year model? push the up button several times, keep pushing it, is it clicking? try the trailer buttom. SOme time repeadiatly hitting the button will get teh selenoid to work. They get bad spots on the contacts and will not work. If it isn’t clicking, check for power at the small blue wire, if there is power at teh small blue wire when you press teh iup button, oddds are teh selenoid is bad and will need replacing. You can jump between the large blue wire and the red wire to see if it will come up, but be carefull, it can spark a bit. Its best to use a remote starter switch for that
Thanks for the input!
The boat is a 2000 model with the 5.7 Mercruiser. I have tried pressing the button repeatedly and it will click every time whether it’s the throttle lever, with or without the trailer button, and also the transom switch. I was going up this evening to try switching the solenoids just so I can get the boat out of the water but with all of this crazy arse weather we’re having on Murray I’ll have to try tomorrow. Once again I appreciate all of the advice.
I finally made it back to the boat club today and thanks to all the advice I was able to troubleshoot the problem to a faulty solenoid. Used the jumper trick to get the motor up and got her out of the water. I did figure one additional thing out today…they don’t design engine compartments for a 6’1" 200 lb adult to get into. You got to be a flippin contortionist to get to anything. Thanks for the help!