88 Cobra 3.0 / changing tilt cylinders?

craigvalk

Seaman
Joined
Jul 23, 2003
Messages
73
All: A question... I need to change tilt / trim cylinders on my 88 Cobra. I assume I need to do this in the down position. I have both the OMC and Seloc manuals and they aren't clear on this, however.
The OMC manual is clear that you should be in the up position to check or add fluid, so logically I'd think " down" for a cylinder change. Also seems a lot easier than holding the drive up while I change cylinders.
Also, should I expect oil to escape under pressure when I break loose the lines?
I assume that I will lose some oil, check fluid, refill, run it up and down a few times and check the fluid again, correct? Any other pointers you have are appreciated.

I'm making the change because my wife hooked a fishing line near the outdrive last weekend and I had her raise it while I hung off the stern to untangle things, and when it approached full "up" I noticed a very slight trace of oil coming off the cylinders, right off the exposed pistons.. so that tells me "leaking".

Thanks in advance.!
 

jerryjerry05

Supreme Mariner
Joined
May 7, 2008
Messages
17,924
Down to replace.
They can be rebuilt.
There any water in the fluid?
Usually if it's leaking oil there could be water in the system.
If so it needs to be purged after the fix.
It will freeze and possibly hurt the pump.
 

craigvalk

Seaman
Joined
Jul 23, 2003
Messages
73
I haven't checked for water yet, but will be doing so. I expected that when I take the lines off I'll know real quick by whatever leaks out. For purging it, I would guess to drain the lines into a can while operating the system? Probably refill and do that until I get the bad stuff out, correct?

And thank you for the response!
 

craigvalk

Seaman
Joined
Jul 23, 2003
Messages
73
That job is done. I was happy to find no water in the fluid, but drained as much as I could anyway. I was surprised how much it took to refill it. Kept running the tilt up and down and rechecking, it took me five rounds of cycling it to get the fluid topped off. The only annoyance was I had to wait for O Rings for the lines to arrive but I didn't want to reuse potentially 24 year old ones. Thank you for the responses.......
 
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