125 Force tilt and trim

My trim cylinder end cap worked itself loose, I lost all the oil. It looked like it unscrewed itself most of the way and then popped off because I seen a little bit of shavings there. I tighted it back up. I am new at this and also found the piston that the trim unit uses for up and down and 2 bolts snapped off and the other 3 twisted and will break. I don't know if this can be fixed or not. I am sure I can bring the cylinder in to get fixed at a shop somewhere but not the piston part. I don't know. Does anyone know where I can find a new unit. Used or rebuilt? model# x1258F8C serial#x1651. Any help would be appreciated. this picture is like my unit but found this one on ebay to use as example. THis one looks a little bit used up.

Re: 125 Force tilt and trim

Sorry here is the picture of where it is damaged

Re: 125 Force tilt and trim

The tilt cylinder can be rebuilt and a good machine shop should be able to clean the threads right up. For the trim cylinder, it sounds like you have a salt water unit and all the bolts seized in the holes. Again, a good machine shop will be able to repair the threads for you. I would get a quote before comitting to the repairs though. It may be cheaper to get another unit through e-bay and rebuild it.

Brian

Re: 125 Force tilt and trim

Interesting ... snapped trim bolts is typically a saltwater thing. But what is a saltwater system doing in Milwaukee?

If your boat is a freshwater and you never towed it to the ocean or stored it under an acidic tree ... then maybe it isn't as bad as you think. Get a punch and smack the heads of the bolts two or three sharp blows to crack any light galling. Then get a pair of strong vice grips and turn the body of the bolt while also turning the head. If your boat has only been used in the great lakes area then this should work.

At any rate .... my guess is that a full rebuild of a system with 5 snapped bolts would be about $200-$250 more than a typical freshwater system. 5 snapped bolts is rather severe. If you have five bolts snapped off then it probably doesn't make sense to rebuild. A good core is $240. A freshwater rebuild is $280. Your old system (a bad/partial core) probably has $100 or so in salvage value. That's a net of $420 for a brand new system. Versus $480 (280 + $200) to rebuild your old system. Not only would the freshwater be cheaper but it wouldn't have any helicoils or reglued magnets. If you can find a local system off craiglist then you'll be far better off in long run.

reagrding snapped bolts. Drill a 1/8" centering hole through length of bolt before using the 17/64" helicoil bit. Always use sharp cobalt bits. Always cobalt. Always sharp. It isn't just a matter of time. Dull bits will wander off center and ruin your trim housing.