Trim motor/relays shorting out

Went to trim the drive down yesterday, heard a funny sound coming from the trim motor area and engine lags hard from the electrical system being hit. Hit the button a couple more times, and after the 3rd time it trims down normally. Throughout the day, it works fine except for a few more times and only on the first time that I hit the switch. If I immediately let off and try it again, it will trim down no problem.

Obviously.. something is grounding out back there and shorting the electrical system. My off the cuff guess is that it would be the relay. Any experience with this? I believe that I read somewhere that the trim motor uses standard Bosch type relays. Are they swappable if so? What are the next steps?

Thanks in advance..

Re: Trim motor/relays shorting out

You don't have relays, you have solenoids. Was the trim pump motor running.

View attachment A1G2 Trim Troublelshooting.pdf

Re: Trim motor/relays shorting out

While they were causing the drain and making the sound? No. Trim was not engaging. Just a huge battery short/drain and a buzzing sound.

After a couple of hits on the button, it ran fine. Connections at the battery are stellar. Only on the down pulse. Going up is perfect.

Looks to me like the next step is to check all connections at the solenoid itself. If those check out and the problem persists, next step is to replace the solenoid..?

Re: Trim motor/relays shorting out

Hard to imagine how a relay is responsible for drawing that much current. Even if it shorted directly out, it would only turn the motor pump on and draw the normal current the motor uses. I'm thinking its more like the motor is drawing excessive current. Shorted internal coils. Even bad brush contacts wouldn't draw excessive current.

You could try jumping out the relay and connecting +12V directly to the pump. But be careful since it is likely to spark if its drawing a lot more current than expected.

I know on mine, the motor brushes aren't great, and sometimes I have to move it up slightly before I can get it to go down. But there's no current draw when that is happening.