The day has been adventerous to say the least. I picked up a 1974 Tri Hull Crestliner with a 1976 Merc outboard on it with power tilt and trim at auction. The owner had it serviced every winter and spring for the past 15 years that he's owned it and only sold it because all the kids are grown up and he's due for surgery and doesn't think he can go boating afterwards.<br /><br />I was a bit concerned about the lack of a safety cable from trailer to boat. The only thing holding it on the trailer was the 25 year old rope. Like a true idiot, I tried driving it home 25 miles anyway and made it 20.....Believe it or not, when the fiberglass hull fell off the trailer and slid 200 feet or so, it didn't fracture or crack and though it wore down some of the fiberglass on the bottom, I'm confident that a coat of homemade fiberglass on the bottom will make it just fine. It slid very lightly. <br /><br />So with the help of 4 good sumeritans, one of which who just happened to have some near new nylon rope, we slid the trailer under it and got it home. Again, none of the guys there could believe how little damage the boat suffered (as in none). The motor never touched the ground because the tilt was all the way up (I bought it with part of the lower unit fin broke off, which isn't a big deal to me)<br /><br />I paid 450.00 for boat, motor, and trailer. Motor got fresh gas and it popped right off (I started it in the driveway with the water hose hooked up to the ear muffs). The boat runs like a dream. <br /><br />Now for the sucky part. Power tilt works going down and out, but not up. I followed the wiring and it's obvious that it's VERY old. None of the lighting on the boat worked when I bought it and the old man told me it had been quite some time since it did. So here are my questions:<br /><br />A) Since out and down works, my tilt and trim problem HAS to be wiring, correct? I'm comfortable running new wire from the console to the battery and tilt motor, but it splits on it's way to the tilt motor and part goes to the outboard itself, where it goes under some plastic thing. Can I easily pop this off to finish running the wire? Or is it going to require a little more effort and knowledge? Is there a simpler way to figure out what is wrong? <br /><br />B)Is there an easy way to bypass the power tilt and trim so that we can just pull it up and down manually? Or does it all have to be redone? <br /><br /><br />I'm really motivated to see this thing on the water before I decide to just dump the hull and sell the trailer and motor.
