98 115 Johnson Agrivating tilt/trim problem

I have an intermittent problem with my tilt/trim. Sometimes the motor will go up but not down, sometimes it will go down but not up and other times it works fine. It doesn't matter if I use the button on the gear shift lever or the buttons on the engine cowling I get the same results. When it is acting up I can usually play around plugging and unplugging the blue and green wires that run from the switch on the cowling and eventually get it to work but I am afraid someday I may get stuck with my engine tilted. Does anybody know a logical procedure for trouble shooting this problem?

Re: 98 115 Johnson Agrivating tilt/trim problem

Well, GatorMike, I don't know your motor, but just last week we had a similar problem come in on a 40hp about that vintage, and it was the second time for that boat (the first time it worked fine in the shop like always) and we ended up finding that the ground wire to the relay switches was loose. Bouncing up and down on the road or lake changed the symptoms and it was tough to find. You might want to check the ground wire for the relays. I found it by wiggling all the wires around the relays while running the tilt and trim up and down, every once in the while you could hear the motor pitch change as it lost ground. Hope it helps, and maybe an expert will come along and give you some better advice soon

Re: 98 115 Johnson Agrivating tilt/trim problem

clean you all connections. they corrode over time.

Re: 98 115 Johnson Agrivating tilt/trim problem

A quick update. I cleaned as many of the connections as I could and still have the problem but have noticed something. There are 2 relays in a junction box at the rear of the engine. When the up button isn't working taping on the relay with the green wire going in corrects the problem. When the down button isn't working taping on the relay with the blue wire corrects it. Both buttons never go out at the same time. Does anybody understand how these relays work? Just wondering if one or both of the relays may be bad or if it may still be a problem with a bad connection?