Trim gauge reading reversed, Trim operates when the ignition is off.

I have an boat that I'm getting ready for the water. I have a 78 Johnson 115 that I have running pretty well. The boat had no instruments in it so I'm putting together a gauge cluster. Doing ok so far but the used trim gauge I've installed works perfectly accept that it reads up when the motor is down and vise versa. I have tried all different combinations of wiring the sender and gauge wires thinking it's a polarity issue, it works only one way and that's backassword. The other thing is that the trim works even when the key is out of the ignition, nothing else works that way just the trim. This could be an intentional feature to allow for raising and lowering the motor conveniently while trailored? I don't know.
Also the other gauges and lighting are working properly with the ignition on or off.
Thanks again.....Bill

Re: Trim gauge reading reversed, Trim operates when the ignition is off.

Do you have the trim gauge oriented properly. Normally the needle points to the right. But -- if the gauge works backwards but otherwise is ok, rotate the gauge 180 degrees. Up will now be up and down will be down. If that's against your principles, you may have a mismatched sender and gauge. In otherwords the trim gauge is not universal across all engine brands. If this was a used system from another engine, you may have a mismatch.

As for the trim operating with the key off -- that is 100% the way it is supposed to be and it's been that way for decades. In fact some engines are now so large and boats are so high that you couldn't reach the key or the trim button from the ground so a trim switch is build into the engine cowl to permit its operation while standing next to the engtine.

Re: Trim gauge reading reversed, Trim operates when the ignition is off.

Thanks Silvertip, I was starting to suspect a mismatch there with the gauge. I think that that's it because the gauge works fine and it only works wired up one way. The gauge is a vertical type with up and down clearly labeled so spinning it around would make it look worse. I don't really need a trim Gauge just thought it would be cool to add another instrument to my cluster, so I'll probably just leave it like it is for awhile. I have a lot of more important things to finish up on the old Glastron. Again thanks for the quick answers....Bill