How do I disable the tilt/trim on my Johnson 115 HP motor

whataday

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Oct 12, 2012
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I have a Johnson 115 HP motor that is equipped with tilt/trim, but it does not work. The motor was checked out and found to be non-functional. I don't know why and I really am not too concerned with it, because we are going to take it off the bass boat it is on and put it on a pontoon, where we will not need the tilt/trim feature. But my question is this: For now, til we decide to swap boats, we want to use it on the bass boat, but the pressure from the pumps I guess will not allow the motor to go down all the way so that the prop is positioned where it needs to be. We tried draining the fluid out of the cylinder on the right side, and lots of fluid came out, but the hydraulic plungers???? (don't know that that is the correct name for them) won't go in anymore to allow the motor to go down any further. Is there anything I can do to release the pressure on those. I just need the motor to go down just one or two more notches.
Johnson 115 hp trim parts pic.jpg
 

bob johnson

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Re: How do I disable the tilt/trim on my Johnson 115 HP motor

what MODEL and what YEAR is the motor?

bob
 

mark1961

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Re: How do I disable the tilt/trim on my Johnson 115 HP motor

On the side of the starboard transom bracket there is hole to access the manual release valve.....
 

whataday

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Re: How do I disable the tilt/trim on my Johnson 115 HP motor

It is J115TLCIM and J5500390, those are the numbers on the tag.
 

James R

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Re: How do I disable the tilt/trim on my Johnson 115 HP motor

So you are another pontoon man who is going to leave the lower in the water. Think about it buddy. The bugs and the water are going to eat the lower unit and the bottom mount. I have this day just power wire brushed an Evin and what a mess.The destruction is amazing. May last another season before the lower swivel mount collapses. I have had several with severe damage. What were these guys thinking and some with working T/Ts.
 

whataday

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Re: How do I disable the tilt/trim on my Johnson 115 HP motor

We actually don't leave our pontoon in the water, we pull it out. I know, that's a lot of hassle, but better than the $250/month slip fees. If ever we did decide to leave it for a while, we could still manually pull the motor up.
 

whataday

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Re: How do I disable the tilt/trim on my Johnson 115 HP motor

2012-11-14_19-41-04_899_2.jpg
This is how the motor is resting. It will not go down any further
2012-11-14_19-39-50_270_2.jpg
Here you can see the hydraulic plungers that will not go in to allow the motor to go down any further. In this pic, the motor is up. After the fluid all poured out of the cylinder on the starboard inside of the transom mount, the pressure on the shock in between the cylinder and the motor was released, but not on the two plungers.
Johnson transom mount bracket.jpg
In this pic, the motor is down, and you can see it is resting on those plungers cause they won't go in.
Johnson motor transon mount side.jpg
The hole in the side is where there was a screw I took out, as well as another from the cylinder just inside the transom mount. When I raised and lowered the motor, the fluid all came pouring out, which was what I wanted and thought would release the pressure on those plungers, but it didn't. So, now what???
 

whataday

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Re: How do I disable the tilt/trim on my Johnson 115 HP motor

I was told it is an 81 model
 

Rmoore45

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Re: How do I disable the tilt/trim on my Johnson 115 HP motor

In the first picture of the motor you can see the trim position holes above the very first hole (the one for the lowest trim position) about 3 inches up there is a hole about 1/2"-5/8". Inside that hole there should be a manual release screw turn the screw about 2 turns counterclockwise (loosening). You then should be able to manually move the motor up and down, albeit not very easy.

Also the manual release screw is a slot head,at least it is on my '78.
 

whataday

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Re: How do I disable the tilt/trim on my Johnson 115 HP motor

That is the hole I loosened the screw in. I actually took it completely out, but it did not release any of the pressure on those plungers. I can move the motor up and down fairly easily now, much more now than before I drained the fluid, but those plungers are still holding the motor up and will not go in. I've looked over everything and cannot figure out how to get them to go in so the motor will go down. I think you can see in the pictures that it is resting at the furthest out position (by looking at the holes). ?????????????
 

Rmoore45

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Re: How do I disable the tilt/trim on my Johnson 115 HP motor

It might be difficult but the motor should go all the way down with that screw loose. Try pushing on the motor, the trim pistons might be stuck. If that doesn't work there is a large screw on the hydraulic reservoir, that is the fill screw for hydraulic fluid. Remove that and then try pushing the motor down. The hydraulic system is a sealed system, so whenever you are trying to push the motor down you are forcing fluid back into the hydraulic fluid reservoir and the fluid is compressing the air in the reservoir making it difficult.

Hope this helps, Ranger
 

1FASTLASER

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Re: How do I disable the tilt/trim on my Johnson 115 HP motor

is the tilt pin still in the factory position......if so it wont go down any farther
 

whataday

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Re: How do I disable the tilt/trim on my Johnson 115 HP motor

It might be difficult but the motor should go all the way down with that screw loose. Try pushing on the motor, the trim pistons might be stuck. If that doesn't work there is a large screw on the hydraulic reservoir, that is the fill screw for hydraulic fluid. Remove that and then try pushing the motor down. The hydraulic system is a sealed system, so whenever you are trying to push the motor down you are forcing fluid back into the hydraulic fluid reservoir and the fluid is compressing the air in the reservoir making it difficult.

Hope this helps, Ranger

Thanks for the info Ranger. I already removed the slot head screw that is in the hydraulic reservoir, as well as the screw on the side of the transom mount. I pushed down on the motor as hard as I could, but it would not give a bit. Tried pushing the plungers in, but they won't budge either. Is the trim piston somewhere I can get to it if it is stuck?
 

whataday

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Re: How do I disable the tilt/trim on my Johnson 115 HP motor

is the tilt pin still in the factory position......if so it wont go down any farther

The tilt pin is in the 4th hole back, so I don't see that it is holding the motor back. It seems to be those hydraulic plungers that's holding it up. I've got to be missing something somewhere, just not sure where.
 

Rmoore45

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Re: How do I disable the tilt/trim on my Johnson 115 HP motor

Well since you're not going to use the tilt and trim, on the bottom of the tilt ram (the vertical one not the 2 diagonal rams) there is a little hydraulic line. Take that loose and that should relieve the hydraulic pressure.

If nothing works you can always just remove the entire power tilt and trim assembly. It's just 4 bolts, 1 pin, and some wires.
 

bob johnson

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Re: How do I disable the tilt/trim on my Johnson 115 HP motor

Well since you're not going to use the tilt and trim, on the bottom of the tilt ram (the vertical one not the 2 diagonal rams) there is a little hydraulic line. Take that loose and that should relieve the hydraulic pressure.

If nothing works you can always just remove the entire power tilt and trim assembly. It's just 4 bolts, 1 pin, and some wires.

thats all good, UNTIL he wants to go in REVERSE.....then it isnt so good anymore

bob
 

whataday

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Re: How do I disable the tilt/trim on my Johnson 115 HP motor

thats all good, UNTIL he wants to go in REVERSE.....then it isnt so good anymore

bob

Hi Bob, Can you explain to me what you mean about reverse? Cause taking the whole unit off was going to be my next step if I couldn't get it down any other way. I'm actually watching a T/T unit on Ebay right now, considering replacing this one, only problem is, I know the motor is bad, but without the motor, I can't test the rest of it (the pump and such) to know if I need to replace the whole thing. AND, I know there are other components as well that could be bad, like the relay/junction box. So I am seriously just considering taking it off and leaving it alone for now. Just don't have a lot of money to spend on it right now since it isn't something I absolutely have to have.
 

boobie

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Re: How do I disable the tilt/trim on my Johnson 115 HP motor

Look on the lower port side of the t/t unit. You'll find a big slotted screw. Under that are some check valves. Try removing that and see what happens.
 

bob johnson

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Re: How do I disable the tilt/trim on my Johnson 115 HP motor

Hi Bob, Can you explain to me what you mean about reverse? Cause taking the whole unit off was going to be my next step if I couldn't get it down any other way. I'm actually watching a T/T unit on Ebay right now, considering replacing this one, only problem is, I know the motor is bad, but without the motor, I can't test the rest of it (the pump and such) to know if I need to replace the whole thing. AND, I know there are other components as well that could be bad, like the relay/junction box. So I am seriously just considering taking it off and leaving it alone for now. Just don't have a lot of money to spend on it right now since it isn't something I absolutely have to have.

with TNT unit removed the lower unti can be lifted by hand!! its ok for going forward because the lower unti is driven into the transom by the prop...but in revervse, the prop will just lift the lower unit right out of the water, instead of the boat going in reverse....


the TNT locks both ways down and up

bob
 

whataday

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Re: How do I disable the tilt/trim on my Johnson 115 HP motor

with TNT unit removed the lower unti can be lifted by hand!! its ok for going forward because the lower unti is driven into the transom by the prop...but in revervse, the prop will just lift the lower unit right out of the water, instead of the boat going in reverse....


the TNT locks both ways down and up


bob

Ok, that makes sense, now I understand that. So let me ask this since you seem to be one of the more knowledgeable ones here: is there a way to get my motor down into the position I need it in, without taking the TNT system completely off? If I leave it on, but release the pressure to hopefully get it lowered, by draining the fluid in the reservoir, am I still going to have the same problem in reverse since there is now no pressure on the TNT unit? I guess I was mistaken in thinking that TNT was an option and not mandatory on this motor. I have a merc that is not equipped with TNT and it stays in place ok in reverse, and is not bolted down (meaning we can manually raise and lower it anytime we want to). Is there something different with this 115 Johnson maybe?
 
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