1985 90hp Johnson Tilt/Trim goes down but not up

[mattkat1580]

Hello!! I have searched and searched and tried many of the things that have been said. Here is my problem and I am hoping someone can help!!

I have a 1985 90hp Johnson motor. The tilt/trim stopped working. I bought a new tilt/trim motor and it was installed by my husband and his brother-n-law. The system was bled and we replaced the relays and the switch is good. Our motor will go down but will not go up. While bleeding the system we noticed we had a bad o-ring and clip. Both of those were replaced and we also checked the other side to see if the o-rings were good/bad and they are fine. We have done the switching of the wires around. When we press the switch to try to make the motor go up you can hear a click and a slight noise from the tilt/trim motor but that is it. Please help!!

 

[schematic]

Re: 1985 90hp Johnson Tilt/Trim goes down but not up

Battery voltage OK? Did you check the voltage at the motor leads while pressing up/down?

 

[mattkat1580]

Re: 1985 90hp Johnson Tilt/Trim goes down but not up

Yes we did. We went about 2inches at mostt out of the tilt/trim motor one had 12.8V the other had 12.4 volts. We also tried another spot by relays. The battery itself for the boat is fully charged and will turn the actual boat motor over with no trouble. I am wondering if we have a faulty tilt/trim motor?

 

[schematic]

Re: 1985 90hp Johnson Tilt/Trim goes down but not up

how did you hook the voltmeter up? was it from motor lead to motor lead, or from a motor lead to ground?

 

[Randy's]

Re: 1985 90hp Johnson Tilt/Trim goes down but not up

Mine is acting like it has a short. Sometimes it just works in one direction next time it doesn't work at all. Then I will trailer the boat back to where it was parked then it will start working again. I've jumped some wires under the black box and it works. This is driving me crazy.

 

[RRitt]

Re: 1985 90hp Johnson Tilt/Trim goes down but not up

could be a bad motor. the inexpensive chinese 3w motors have a certain doa rate. Is it possible for you to verify the reliability and torque of your motor?

 

[s.wxman]

Re: 1985 90hp Johnson Tilt/Trim goes down but not up

Mine is acting like it has a short. Sometimes it just works in one direction next time it doesn't work at all. Then I will trailer the boat back to where it was parked then it will start working again. I've jumped some wires under the black box and it works. This is driving me crazy.

May not always get the best response jumping into a different OP's thread.
However, the first thing I would check in your case are the trim relays. They are probably little square boxes that plug into the wiring harness somewhere under the cowling. The two relays should be identical. Try switching positions and see if the direction with the problem changes.

Good luck

 

[Randy's]

Re: 1985 90hp Johnson Tilt/Trim goes down but not up

New relays but if I jump the bottom wires it works.

 

[RRitt]

Re: 1985 90hp Johnson Tilt/Trim goes down but not up

intermittent failures are usually the motor, often the switch, sometimes the relays.