Volvo SX-A trim sender wiring

spoilsofwar

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Jun 29, 2011
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I've been getting some erratic jumping on my trim gauge lately, generally in when in reverse. I took a look at the sensor and wiring today, and it appears the wires have been pinched by the drive. At least one of the three wires has had its insulation torn so the conductor is exposed.

What I'm wondering is if it would be appropriate to remove the wiring from the transom, cut and resolder, and re insulate the wires? I would rather not replace the whole assembly as it is $200+ for the Volvo penta part and my guess is the sensor itself is perfectly fine as it is working 95% of the time. Thoughts?

 

Dave-R

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Mar 18, 2008
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Been there done that. If you can get to them, that's great. I did not have room to cut and splice the wires. I had to take off the drive and bonnet, and crawl around the back of the engine with a mirror to replace the whole trim sender. Afterward, I wished I had listened to good advice from this site. (Leave it alone, they don't last long anyway) Dave-R
 

spoilsofwar

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Thanks for the reply Dave. I was doing some other work on the boat and couldn't stop looking at the wires, and once I cut back the outer sleeve coving the three individual wires, I saw that one of them was just about broken with only a couple strands of conductor still having continuity.

At that point I figured it would break soon anyway, so I cut it, soldered in an extension, insulated about three times over, and tried to route it (with the new length) in a way that the pinch damage would not occur again. I did this without ever pulling the wires thru the transom; what a PITA. Anyway, it works good again, and hopefully will last awhile.
 

dypcdiver

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Best of luck, I found that the water creeps along the insulation and destroys the sender. I have replaced 5 or 6 of them, but this one is 4 seasons old and going strong.
 

evantful

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May 11, 2014
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I just replaced mine last season for the first time on a 1999 Cobalt with the 5.0Gi and DP-SM outdrive. Just passed 650hrs when the first one finally kicked the bucket.

It ended up being a lot easier than I thought, just a couple of tries with a mirror to get the clip on
 

spoilsofwar

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Just a FWIW update; my splice is still working a year (and about 30 boating -engine running- hours) later. So hundreds of in-water hours.
 

mbram

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Apr 28, 2015
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This might be bad advice- but it worked. I Did bellows and U Joints and saw the same problem. I also did not want to deal with it. I used a combination of liquid electrical tape
 

spoilsofwar

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This might be bad advice- but it worked. I Did bellows and U Joints and saw the same problem. I also did not want to deal with it. I used a combination of liquid electrical tape

Glad to hear it. Some naysayers will probably chime in saying it will fail soon - well mine has been spliced like this for over a year and used weekly with no issues. If it does fail, you're out nothing. If you had changed it, you're out a few hundred dollars right off the bat. Changing the sender out completely is a PITA job, mainly the part that requires fishing the wires through the transom shield.
 

bruceb58

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Mar 5, 2006
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When I installed my new sender, I did a splice of the wires with waterproof Ancor crimp connectors. I know DonS gave me grief when I told hm I did it that way but my local Volvo guy says he does it that way all the time.
 

spoilsofwar

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God rest his soul, DonS sure would only tell you the right way to do stuff ;)

I don't know that I'd have the heart to cut a new trim sensor up and splice it in to the old wiring, but I don't doubt it would work. In my case, and apparently mbram's case too, the issue was with the wiring itself. Splice out the bad, in with the good, and go boating.
 

bruceb58

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Mar 5, 2006
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If I did it today,I would probably not do the splice. I also would never bother fixing it the next time it goes bad. It's pretty much a useless gauge.
 

CV16

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Aug 30, 2007
Messages
445
I like my trim gauge. I'll fix mine for sure if it ever fails. Very useful to know I'm not trimmed up too high. I sometimes have other people driving and it's always nice to be able to tell them not to trim it past a certain point.
 
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