Guys,
My buddy bought a boat this past summer, and other than being able to pay for the boat, didn't know much about them. The boat is a 1998 Aquasport 205 Osprey, and it had a 1997 Johnson 115 V4. I went to his dock yesterday, and found the serial number to be G0434387, and model to be XJ115HXEUA.
So, we were fishing for the last day of flounder season on Friday, and as we got back to his dock, he raised his engine. The tilt motor / pump made a pretty nasty noise, and it sounded like it was low on hydraulic fluid. I then noticed that there was a sheen on the water, but I don't know if this was hydraulic fluid, or just oil that was coming out in the exhaust.
Anyway, the next day, he is out crabbing with his young daughters, and gets into some shallow water. He raises the engine, so that they don't get stuck, and continues to crab. The good part of the story is that they caught a lot of crabs, but the bad part is that the engine would not lower. He finally kept hitting the tilt switch to lower it, and got the same noise that we had the day before while raising the engine (note: the tilt motor / pump did not make the noise the previous day when we lowered the engine). He was able to push on the engine enough to get it part of the way down; which was just enough to get the cooling inlets covered.
So, I'm trying to help him diagnose and fix the motor. I went on the shop.evinrude site, and found a diagram for his tilt motor (part #0437664 I believe for the entire assembly). I did some searches on the forum here, and found some similar problems, but I'm a bit perplexed. I see that a lot of the previous replies that there is a manual release screw, but everyone mentions that it is on the port side of the assembly. I printed the schematic from the evinrude site, and it appears that on this unit, it is on the starboard side (part #66 on the diagram). Does this sound right?
So, based on this minimum information, what can we try to fix this? There is definitely some rust on the unit (mostly on the tilt motor housing on the port side of the engine), but the tilt motor still works. I'm thinking that the electrical side of the equation is wrong, based solely on the fact that the engine will raise if it is in a down position. The fluid level has not been checked in the reservoir, but I will do that over the weekend. I would think though that if there wasn't any hydraulic fluid, then the ram/piston that raises and lowers the motor would not be able to hold the weight of the motor in an up position, and that the motor would drop. Is this correct?
Lastly, if he really had to, could he somehow raise and lower the motor manually, at least until he gets the problem fixed?
Thanks.
Joe
My buddy bought a boat this past summer, and other than being able to pay for the boat, didn't know much about them. The boat is a 1998 Aquasport 205 Osprey, and it had a 1997 Johnson 115 V4. I went to his dock yesterday, and found the serial number to be G0434387, and model to be XJ115HXEUA.
So, we were fishing for the last day of flounder season on Friday, and as we got back to his dock, he raised his engine. The tilt motor / pump made a pretty nasty noise, and it sounded like it was low on hydraulic fluid. I then noticed that there was a sheen on the water, but I don't know if this was hydraulic fluid, or just oil that was coming out in the exhaust.
Anyway, the next day, he is out crabbing with his young daughters, and gets into some shallow water. He raises the engine, so that they don't get stuck, and continues to crab. The good part of the story is that they caught a lot of crabs, but the bad part is that the engine would not lower. He finally kept hitting the tilt switch to lower it, and got the same noise that we had the day before while raising the engine (note: the tilt motor / pump did not make the noise the previous day when we lowered the engine). He was able to push on the engine enough to get it part of the way down; which was just enough to get the cooling inlets covered.
So, I'm trying to help him diagnose and fix the motor. I went on the shop.evinrude site, and found a diagram for his tilt motor (part #0437664 I believe for the entire assembly). I did some searches on the forum here, and found some similar problems, but I'm a bit perplexed. I see that a lot of the previous replies that there is a manual release screw, but everyone mentions that it is on the port side of the assembly. I printed the schematic from the evinrude site, and it appears that on this unit, it is on the starboard side (part #66 on the diagram). Does this sound right?
So, based on this minimum information, what can we try to fix this? There is definitely some rust on the unit (mostly on the tilt motor housing on the port side of the engine), but the tilt motor still works. I'm thinking that the electrical side of the equation is wrong, based solely on the fact that the engine will raise if it is in a down position. The fluid level has not been checked in the reservoir, but I will do that over the weekend. I would think though that if there wasn't any hydraulic fluid, then the ram/piston that raises and lowers the motor would not be able to hold the weight of the motor in an up position, and that the motor would drop. Is this correct?
Lastly, if he really had to, could he somehow raise and lower the motor manually, at least until he gets the problem fixed?
Thanks.
Joe