1990-ish Johnson 48 SPL Trim Tilt Motor, Pin Removal please help!

gnarbrah

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Sep 20, 2007
Messages
140
I received the "last" part that I think I need yesterday. Unfortunately the thunderstorms don't want me to work on the boat so I haven't had a chance to tinker with it. As I sit and contemplate the assembly process in my mind I've come up with what I think is going to be my biggest challenge:

The hydraulic cylinder is still holding negative pressure (I think that's right?). The reservoir is completely drained of fluid but when I pull up on the rod it's like it is holding vacuum pressure and is very difficult to lift then almost "snaps" back down. I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to get it into the position I need in order to get the pin back in place.

Any ideas?
 

interalian

Commander
Joined
Jul 23, 2009
Messages
2,105
Idea - use the pump motor to extend the piston when it's all back together. Put as much oil in the reservoir as you can first. Hold the leg up with a prop. Once it pumps up, fit the pin.
 

gnarbrah

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Sep 20, 2007
Messages
140
Brilliant! I need to train my mind that I now have a working trim motor. Why do the simple solutions escape me...

Thanks! Hopefully come Saturday afternoon I'll be back on the water!
 

gnarbrah

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Sep 20, 2007
Messages
140
Ugh. Why does this thing have to fight me every step of the way??

So I mounted the trim motor and all went smoothly. then I decided to do a temporary hookup just to make sure the tilt motor works. Hooked it up, pushed the buttons and nothing...
So now I think it's electrical. I'm not mad that I changed the motor because it was way past due and I still think it's bad. When I grabbed the shaft to spin it with some pliers it was all crunchy sounding as I turned it. New motor is nice and smooth like I would think it should be.

Now my question is where do I start? There are 3 wires going into the up / down buttons (red, green and blue). I would assume the red is the hot lead coming in and the blue and green are up and down? I traced the wires back around the motor as best I could in the dark and it appears the red bails out under the fuel pump and terminates in a plug that isn't pugged into anything. The blue and green carry on out the front of the engine and down to the trim motor. At some point they both turn into black wires so I'm not sure if I have it hooked up backwards at the trim motor but I didn't think that would matter other than up and down would be reversed. Am I right in that assumption?

Help PLEASE!! Where do I start? I have power to the engine because I bumped the start button and it turned over. I have a multimeter and a 12v test light I just don't know what to check.
 

gnarbrah

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Sep 20, 2007
Messages
140
Ok - so some good news. I got up this morning and started poking around everywhere with the test light and noticed I didn't have power coming to the "electrical panel" (not sure what it's really called). There is a wire that comes from the main connection (where the starter wire comes off) that feeds this panel and it has an inline fuse that was blown. I assume that when the old motor died it drew enough current trying to run that it popped. That problem is fixed and the trim motor hums right along.

Now on to the next issue...

I got everything wired up and put back together with tef-gel and started filling with ATF. I got enough in there to make the piston start moving to line it up and get the big pin back in place (thanks again interalien). So I've read to run the motor all the way up (with help of course) and all the way down to purge the air. Then refill and repeat. It's definitely getting better and will hold the motor at pretty much any position and go down just fine. When I try to go back up it starts to go up a little but I have to manually lift it most all the way. I have cycled it like this 2 or 3 times then tried to add more fluid but it's not taking much more and isn't getting any better in operation. When the motor is almost all the way down the sound changes pretty substantially and sounds like it's starving for fluid. I'm guessing this is part of the self bleeding?
My only thought at this point is the whole assembly is angled too far back to get it completely full? Does this sound like it's still low on fluid?
I've got the trailer jack all the way down in the front but the trim assembly still has a definite lean towards the back (if that makes sense). I think I'm going to use a floor jack and fold the trailer jack up to try and get it even lower in the front. Other than that I guess I need to find some ramps to back the trailer onto if I need to get even lower up front.

Thanks

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jakedaawg

Rear Admiral
Joined
Jun 26, 2012
Messages
4,275
Run it up and down without helping it, just as far as it goes each time is fine. By helping it up you are actually sucking more air in. The pump will bubble and gurgle and such. I dont even put the cap on while doing this. I just use a big drain pan underneath. You have the right idea with the hose to fill with.
 

gnarbrah

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Sep 20, 2007
Messages
140
Thanks Jake - I noticed every time I unscrewed the fill it would suck air in. Wish I'd have read your reply before I refilled it about 75 times...

The good news is I think I'm done! For quite a while right at the very bottom of trimming it down it would "sploosh" for lack of a better term. It would gurgle and carry on near the top end of the run too. The sploosh finally went away but I still hear a little gurgle near the top end. I finally gave up when it would spit out as much as I could squirt in there. I ended up dropping the front of the trailer as low as I could get it and that seemed to allow me to get some more fluid in there. It may still be a touch low on fluid - can that cause any damage?

As of right now it goes all the way up and down just like it's supposed to. I must say I'm slightly impressed with myself on this little project. Sure did learn a lot.

Thanks again to all for your advice!
 

interalian

Commander
Joined
Jul 23, 2009
Messages
2,105
Good job and nice perserverence! You may find some air bubbles will work out after a few days too.
 
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