Trim problems w/ 1988 Johnson 90hp

[Mr Mudd]

I'm new to this site and looking for some help. I was about to winterize my motor and tried to power it to the down position when I realized the trim was not responding. It's stuck in the up position and the trim isn't working at all. There's no clicking, just nothing. I have no idea what it is. My battery is fully charged and it was working 2 weeks ago. I did have a problem with it around September. I replaced the switch in the throttle handle and its been fine since. I did some testing and it appears I'm getting power all the way to the relays. But, I am in no way an electrician or a mechanic of any kind, so I'm not positive I'm testing correctly. As I was checking top to bottom I noticed there was a green wire corroded and un-attached(at the trim sender)..... I never even knew anything about a trim sender until looking up the part number on the web and the image matched what I was looking at. I noticed the black n white wires were connected, but, the green wire wasn't connected to anything and was corroded away at whatever it was connected to. Could this be the problem? I'm not sure of the function of the trim sender. Can anyone offer advice or help? I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[boobie]

Re: Trim problems w/ 1988 Johnson 90hp

The trim sender has nothing to do with the motor going up and down.

 

[metriccrescentwrench]

Re: Trim problems w/ 1988 Johnson 90hp

That green wire on the trim sender isn't really needed, you can just cut it off and not worry about it.

As far as your trim not working, have you tried pushing the up button to see if it tries to run? If not then probably either the red wire going to the trim switch doesn't have power on it or there's a bad ground at the trim relays. If the trim will energize when you push the up button but not the down then you could have a bad trim relay for down, or a bad connection of the green wire running from the trim switch back to the relays. If that's the case then try swapping trim relays to see if the problem moves to the up side, that will prove that one relay is bad.

If you had said that you heard the relays click but the trim motor didn't run then you could be looking at a bad trim motor.

And of course there are other possibilities than what I've suggested.

 

[phillnjack2]

Re: Trim problems w/ 1988 Johnson 90hp

have you checked to see if the trim wire plug on the inside of the cowling is clean ? where the wires from the pump motor join !!!
these although rubber plugs do still get corrosion in them from time to time.
I would get them apart and have a clean up,sometimes one or more of the little pins also come out of their places and need to
be pushed back into the rubber.
i know this as it happened to me very recently.
Also is everything else on the engine getting power ? a quickly flick of the starter to see if engine is getting power.
check the earth leads in the cowling , it sounds more like a dirt problem, but the trim motor wires can easily be got at from inside the cowling to see if power is getting to them, (this is once past the relays by the way ).

you can also try to jump the power trim from a battery to see if it is the trim motor playing up.

if it is the motor then take the whole thing apart and clean it out and then new seals.
these little motors are far too expensive for what they are.


phill

 

[Mr Mudd]

Re: Trim problems w/ 1988 Johnson 90hp

The trim sender has nothing to do with the motor going up and down.

Thank you

 

[Mr Mudd]

Re: Trim problems w/ 1988 Johnson 90hp

That green wire on the trim sender isn't really needed, you can just cut it off and not worry about it.

As far as your trim not working, have you tried pushing the up button to see if it tries to run? If not then probably either the red wire going to the trim switch doesn't have power on it or there's a bad ground at the trim relays. If the trim will energize when you push the up button but not the down then you could have a bad trim relay for down, or a bad connection of the green wire running from the trim switch back to the relays. If that's the case then try swapping trim relays to see if the problem moves to the up side, that will prove that one relay is bad.

If you had said that you heard the relays click but the trim motor didn't run then you could be looking at a bad trim motor.

And of course there are other possibilities than what I've suggested.

I tried switching the relays and still nothing. I pushed up and down on the switch and nothing. However, I was able to get the motor in the down position manually after locating that screw and turning it 2 times.
Thank you for your suggestions.... I'm still working on it.

 

[Mr Mudd]

Re: Trim problems w/ 1988 Johnson 90hp

have you checked to see if the trim wire plug on the inside of the cowling is clean ? where the wires from the pump motor join !!!
these although rubber plugs do still get corrosion in them from time to time.
I would get them apart and have a clean up,sometimes one or more of the little pins also come out of their places and need to
be pushed back into the rubber.
i know this as it happened to me very recently.
Also is everything else on the engine getting power ? a quickly flick of the starter to see if engine is getting power.
check the earth leads in the cowling , it sounds more like a dirt problem, but the trim motor wires can easily be got at from inside the cowling to see if power is getting to them, (this is once past the relays by the way ).

you can also try to jump the power trim from a battery to see if it is the trim motor playing up.

if it is the motor then take the whole thing apart and clean it out and then new seals.
these little motors are far too expensive for what they are.


phill

I do have power. The engine starts. I am going to try your suggestions and do some testing. My first step is to make sure what a Cowling is because as I said I'm a newbie. My first thought was that a cowling was a baby cow(lol). So please forgive my ignorance. Thank you very much for help.