1995 Force 120 Tilt Trim rebuild.

[Facemelter]

OK, bare with me here, this is my first boat purchase. Which I got about 3 months ago.

I bought a 95 Quantum with a force 120 on the back. I bought it from a friend of mine who got it from his Dad.

Anyway.

Recently the trim has not been working that great. It will trim down with no problems, but trim up is not that great. The pump will run when you hit the trim button, but it just wont move. If it does move, it is not very far up, and when it gets done moving up, the pump changes noise to a more higher pitch noise, as if its trying to pump fluid but its not moving. You can move it by helping the motor tilt up if you manually move it by hand and someone else pushes the trim button.

I have checked fluid and added a small amount of quicksilver T@T fluid to it, but that did not help.

Is this a pump problem? I have found it on amazon and have it saved to my cart. Just need to make sure this is it before I start throwing money at it.

 

[SkiDad]

Usually not the pump. But rather the valve body that is on the bottom of the pump. The seals go bad at about 20 years.

 

[jerryjerry05]

Try lubricating the ram with WD or oil.
You say the boat's a 95 is the motor a 95 too?

​A 95, that system is all Mercury and usually a long lasting item.

An older motor and it could be a Prestolite system.

​Yours have a single ram? If so it's a Mercury

​Skidad, the pump and valve body on the Mercury is the same thing.
Nothing like your Prestolite system.

Try lubing the rams and the tilt pin and any fittings you can see.
​You might need to use a bit of heat to loosen the old grease and make it easier to move???

 

[Facemelter]

Yes, both the boat and engine are 95. Single ram, and from what I can tell in my research on the interwebs, this is a Mercury unit.

This boat has sat for some time. I can only guess that the seals in the pump/valve body have most likely rotted away. The oil in the TnT reservoir looks nasty, so I know that didnt help.


The link I posted is what I have been eyeballing from Amazon. If that is what could possibly help fix it, I will order it.
https://www.amazon.com/Electrical-TRM8000-Motor-Force-Trm8000/dp/B019FNFCXC

The boat is in great shape minus a 6 inch spot on the floor where someone dropped an anchor, and the hideous 70's red carpet.

 

[SkiDad]

no i don't think that will work according to what Jerry said above.

 

[Facemelter]

I would believe that if it was binding or had a hard time trimming up that it would change to more of a low whine or start to labor. I can move the unit up fairly easily with me hand, which makes me believe it isnt rusty or has crusties on it that would physically stop it from moving up. Everything has been cleaned up and greased when I first got it.

When it stops moving up, the pump sounds like it free's up, as if it wasnt pushing anything up. Like it just freespins. Maybe pressure is being relieved past a check valve in the pump/valve body? Or the ram cylinder has a bad seal and its leaking past it?

 

[jerryjerry05]

That's NOT your pump.
​That's the older Prestolite.
Try draining the oil and refill with new.
​The ram seal could be bad but it would have trouble all the way through the travel???
​Sounds like it needs oil.

 

[Facemelter]

Lets see if I can post a pic.

 

[jerryjerry05]

Yup that's a Mercury kit.
Usually the electric motor goes bad and not the pump.
​Try filling with oil.

Any kind of work on this unit requires the motor to be removed

 

[Facemelter]

Yup that's a Mercury kit.
Usually the electric motor goes bad and not the pump.
​Try filling with oil.

Any kind of work on this unit requires the motor to be removed

As in, the electric pump motor, or the Outboard motor?

 

[jerryjerry05]

The electric motor might be replaced without removing the motor.
​I've never replaced just the motor.
The electric motor usually comes with the reservoir and to change the reservoir the motor needs to come off.

 

[Facemelter]

I found a seal kit on ebay. I am going to buy that and start there with it. Its in the garage right now getting a new fish finder. After I am done installing the worlds biggest transducer I am going to tackle the T@T ram.

Ill keep you all informed.

Thank you for the info.

 

[SkiDad]

be careful to block your engine up if you decide to work on it with it on - that could be fairly dangerous.

 

[jerryjerry05]

While the motors off the boat take the electric motor off and service the brushes and clean the reservoir.
If it's in there, make sure the TINYYYYY ball bearing that's on top of the armature doesn't get lost.
The parts diagram doesn't show it but it might be in there???
While it's off it's a good time to clean the steering tube and clean the steering cable and re-grease it.
​A thick marine grease used in the wheel bearings gums up fast.

​I use oil on my steering parts. but I have hyd. steering.

 

[Facemelter]

After gathering some info, I should be able to pull the hydraulic cylinder and pump/reservoir off as one with the engine staying attached to the transom.
The mount for the engine has a lock on the port side, and I also have a transom bracket that can extend out to hold it up, since that lock is half sketchy.

Also in my adventures of pulling the boat into the garage I managed to break a small piece off of one of the prop ears. Come to find out, someone has installed the wrong pitch prop on it.

So, now i need to buy a prop. So. Much. Fun.

 

[jerryjerry05]

Just get it rebuilt if its only a small piece.
Just about every marine place has a rebuild service.

How do you know it's the wrong pitch?
You need to figure out the rpms at wide open and then adjust from there.

 

[Facemelter]

Its a 23 pitch prop on my 17 foot quantum with this force 120 on the back. I need a 21 or so. I always wondered why it had no holeshot.

And no one I have found around town has a rebuild for this trim. It was all superseded to a whole new tilt trim unit.

 

[jerryjerry05]

Try posting the part # on Google or e-bay???

 

[Facemelter]

Yeah I tried that. I found on Mercury's website a breakdown of the part numbers and what was superseded. Most of all the parts are superseded to a whole new trim unit.
I have a manifold/pump rebuild kit and a ram rebuild kit sitting in my saved cart on ebay that look like they are the original's before mercury discontinued them.

I worked the parts department at Volvo for 8 years before I left for a real job where I was able to afford my boat. I am kinda savvy with part numbers and finding what I need. Unfortunately most of these parts were gone when I was still in High school.

 

[jerryjerry05]

Keep us posted on the progress.
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