1996 Force 75HP Need Basic Advice Please

[bbenkaz]

Greetings all,
Been a while since I have been on the forum because I have not owned a boat in a while. Everyone here was always nice in the past. I just bought a pontoon with a 1996 75h force and it has been sitting a while. It fires right up but I am going to do some maintenance before taking it to the water. I ordered some parts from iboats yesterday and I have a few questions:

1. The power trim is not working, I have not done trouble shooting it could just be the switch of fuse but is there a way to manually raise the motor?
1a. If there is no way to manually raise the motor can I still change the impeller? The motor does not sit very far from the ground on the trailer, longer than what I would guess the shaft length to be.

2. The thermostat for the motor is on back order so I could not get one right away but I did order a couple of the gaskets. I know the thermostat works, when we fired it up on the muffs it did open at least partially after running for a minute or two and then start to flow water through the tell tale.
Can I just remove the thermostat until I get one so that I know it won't cause a problem or am I better off to leave it in for the time being or should I not run it at all until I can get a thermostat? I am in TN and the water temp is getting pretty warm these days.

3. The speedometer tube is broken (he told me that is what is what looking at the back of the engine it is a small hollow plastic tube on the right). Do I need to block it off or anything like that?

4. Any other words of wisdom?

Any and all help is greatly appreciated.


Thanks,
Ben

 

[Frank Acampora]

Depending upon the T/T system there may be a white plastic screw/hex on the right side of the pump. It might be accessed through a hole in the right transom clamp. Unscrew it but do not remove it (to prevent oil spillage) The engine may lift up with a bit of force--it won't be easy.

You can run the engine without a thermostat until the new one arrives.

If the speedometer is mounted to the transom you do not need to do anything. You should be able to buy a new pitot tube (impact tube) here at iboats.

 

[bbenkaz]

Frank,

Thank you! Hopefully I can get the trim to work because that is a high dollar item. I am going to bypass all of the existing switches and test to see if it will work.

I am not sure about the tube the speedometer. I think it goes to the helm in the center of the boat (it is a small diameter plastic tube maybe 1/8"). I don't care about reading the speed right now I just didn't want it to get water in it or inadvertently damage something. I am not even sure about that tube being for the speed, I don't understand how that would work, it goes into the engine and up to the helm I think. Maybe I need to take a second look at it.

 

[Jiggz]

If you cannot raise the motor with the T&T because it doesn't have the bypass valve, you can still dismount the LU by lowering the trailer jackstand and letting the trailer sit on its tongue, this is as long as you have a single axle trailer. Just make sure the boat is properly tied down to prevent it from sliding forward.

 

[bbenkaz]

No Title

Jiggz,
When I read your comment I thought, duh why didn't I think of that. Then I remembered it is a tandem axle probably would not work.

New question:
So the pump motor is toasted, I cut the wires and tried them directly to a battery, no pump operation at all, which I suspected considering the coil resistance was nearly 0 ohms and the wires had missing insulation from being cooked.

Now I have ordered a new Pump, Sierra 18-6777 and I am going to order the two Tilt Relays tomorrow. I need some help on how to install it.

The engine is in the down position and the warning sticker on the pump clearly reads "Oil in trim system under pressure when engine is trimmed down. Open cap only when unit is full trimmed up." So how do I remove the oil so I can change the motor and reservoir housing?

If I remove the cap is oil going to go everywhere?
How much pressure is it under?
Am I going to get hit with the cap and hydraulic fluid when I remove it?
Is it just standard hydraulic oil?
Is there a procedure for changing it out? I suspect that the new one will not have directions but I could be wrong


I am going to get a manual, found one on ebay but I don't have time for it to get here. Any help is appreciated.

.

Thanks!
Ben

 

[bbenkaz]

I just realized that I received advice but I was too dumb to apply it properly. When I first looked I could not find the bleeder screw but I was not looking in the correct place, it must be on the cylinder and not on the motor assembly. Is it on the hydraulic cylinder?
I will look tomorrow to see if I can find the bleeder screw, that will make life easier assuming I can find it and that is actually allows me to raise the engine so I can remove the remaining oil from the reservoir.

 

[bbenkaz]

There is no relief screw that I can find anywhere??????? How in the world do I change this motor out?

 

[bbenkaz]

No Title

I have looked multiple times and still cannot find it. Attached are images.
Does this mean I have some aftermarket assembly?

 

[bbenkaz]

I cannot find the engine identification tag anywhere so I have been going on someone's word that this is a 1996 75hp. There are some numbers stamped on the outside of the motor but they do not correspond to anything that I can find on the serial number charts. After looking at the 1995 70hp parts breakdown it appears that there is no relief valve on the trim, it matches what I have. So I checked and the cowl is the same for a 70hp or 75hp 95/96 respectively. So perhaps either I have a late 70hp, an early 75hp and they needed to get rid of the trim parts, someone has changed the cowl or something else. I don't really care about the true HP rating at this point.

Either way the trim replacement motor is listed as being the same. My biggest concern is how the heck do I release the pressure without getting injured by the cap flying off? I have no idea if it is under 10lbs or 1000lbs of pressure. I just want to change the tilt motor out so I can change the impeller, get this thing on the water and make sure it floats and the engine drives. Preferably I would like to do this before my wife does something terrible to me in my sleep

 

[bbenkaz]

FYI I spoke with a local mechanic and was able to remove the top of the motor and reservoir without incident. Hopefully the replacement pump is the correct one and all will be happy!

Thanks,
Ben