Tilt/run lever on old Johnson.

[62Scout]

I recently picked up a '69 Silverline Riviera, as the first boat I've owned. I grew up on the water, but only running Dad's old Thunderbird that he sold when I was a teenager, and have been off the water since, which was about 20 years ago. So I'm largely relearning it all again, and learning new things as well. Such as today, I learned that not all hydraulic set ups are both tilt and trim, which explained why my motor wouldn't trim up at anything above idle speeds, and would slam back down if I tried trimming it up then applying power. I also learned what the goofy looking J pin that I found in the gunwale storage was for - manual trim pin.

There is also a lever on the port side of the motor, labeled tilt on one side of the handle, and run on the other side. I assume this would be set to run to lock the motor on to the trim pin when installed to prevent the motor from tilting itself up in reverse, and set to tilt when I need to raise the motor to put it on the trailer, but I ran it all day today with the trim pin removed, and never noticed the motor wanting to tilt up even under a decent amount of throttle in reverse (this was before I realized I need have that pin installed for trim purposes, and still thought I had power trim) Does the hydraulic tilt unit keep the motor from tilting on it's own? As such, should I still be putting the lever in run next time out when I do have the trim pin installed? I forsee myself forgetting to flip it one day when putting it back on the trailer, and afraid I may cause damage to something.

 

[ahicks]

I always use the "trim pin" to set the maximum amount of down - usually somewhere that allowed for the engine and boat to be lined up/level with each other. To my knowledge there's no benefit to allowing the engine any further "down" from that point.

Regarding the tilt lever, not sure how yours works, but the only thing the last one I had would do is to lock the engine in the full up position.

 

[TyeeMan]

62Scout, If I'm envisioning this correctly, I had the same set up on a 1984 50 h.p. Johnson. Is your tilt motor and ram affixed via a bracket on one side of the outboard, right hand side I think as you sit forward in the boat?
This is for tilting the motor only, it is not robust enough to trim the motor. As you found out, if you have the motor tilted a bit and you power up, the trim cylinder or valving will yield and the motor will come down. That said, you will or should be able to idle through the shallows with the motor tilted.

As for the pin, you need to use that to set your optimal trim. I set mine to where I had a slight positive trim. The boat would get out of the water just fine but I still got the bow up just a bit on plane and WOT.

Tilt and Run lever - I never used it, I kept it in the tilt position as I wanted to be able to tilt the motor at any given time. You can easily back out of a dock or back troll with no issues. However, if you decide to power reverse the motor will come up slowly.

An actual power tilt AND trim will (depending on engine HP) usually incorporate 3 hydraulic rams and will be tucked in between the transom clamps under the power head. There will be 2 little stubby hydraulic rams, these would be the tilt rams, and then there will be on longer ram, that will be the tilt ram/cylinder.

All that being said, do not trailer the boat with the motor partially tilted, the tilt bracket etc is not robust enough. Pulling out of the lake at the landing is fine, I wouldn't head off down the highway that way. Either tilt the motor all the way up, or all the way down, I got a transom saver so I could have the motor partially tilted and not have to worry about driveways and such.

Hope that helps.

 

[62Scout]

Yes, single ram on the inside starboard side of the transom bracket, shock absorber on the inside port side of the transom bracket, and motor/pump assembly bolted to the transom on the starboard outside of the transom bracket. I was able to tilt the motor up and get up to just off idle with the motor up. My tach isn't opererating correctly at the moment, but I would guesstimate around 1500rpm is when it would come back down.

I did once give it a decent amount of power in reverse, as I was dealing with a clogged fuel line while in a stiff wind and an anchor that wouldn't grab the bottom. By the time I got it sorted out, I was about two feet away from contacting a rocky section, and I grabbed a handful of reverse throttle to get out. Motor seemed fine, though I was only on it for about 3 seconds. Given the amount of water that was coming up over the transom, I certainly wouldn't want to run in reverse that high for any length of time anyways. I put the pin in the center hole for now, and will play with it a bit next time I put it in the water.

I have what I believe is a transom saver now, that came with the boat - a tube with a V bracket at the motor end, and plugs into a socket on the trailer, that supports the motor in a partially tilted state. I noticed a small pin on the port side of the transom bracket labeled "Trailer lock push and turn" that I'm assuming would also lock the motor in a tilted up state, but I'm also assuming that would put a heck of a load on the transom, thus the transom saver pole?

 

[TyeeMan]

Your description of your transom saver is correct. Use that when in transit.

Not entirely sure about the trailer/lock pin. Maybe that is used when the motor is completely down to lock it in the down position while trailering. Not sure.

 

[62Scout]

No Title

This is the pin on the side of my motor, just to the right of the upper mounting bolt.