2003 J90PL4ST Four Stroke Tilt/Trim

[upnatm]

Trim pump was inop. Using shop manual, I troubleshot the relays and they checked fine. Ran the green and blue wires directly to 12v, motor did not run. Pulled unit from transom. Before pulling the pump motor from the housing, I again ran the green and blue wires to the same 12v source, and the motor purred like a kitten, and the tilt rod extended and retracted as designed. I have no idea why, but the motor continues to run like brand new.
The hydraulic fluid that I encountered was a very light pink with the consistancy of pepto bismol. Knowing that wasn't right, I used the shop manual, and did a tear down of everything except the motor (which, still runs fine!). I drained all the pink crap, cleaned everything up, put it back together (again...using the manual), and filled with Dexron III to the correct level. Now the motor runs normally, but the tilt rod (which has remained fully extended throughout this procedure) will not move up, or down. I assumed I would run it up and down a few times to bleed it, but that ain't happening.
Any ideas???

 

[RRitt]

Re: 2003 J90PL4ST Four Stroke Tilt/Trim

you used all new seals? if not, then don't bother with the raising and lowering yet. you need to take unit back off and do again. The water intrusion either came from a leaky motor or a leaky top seal on a ram. If you did not put in new seals then you did not fix the real problem.

pump gears are made from steel. if they sit unused for a long time with water they can get stuck. your trim motor is a high-rpm medium torque affair. If the gears get stuck they can prevent motor from getting its spin up.

assuming that you examined and corrected all of the above, then you just need to fill and bleed the system. When a system starts from dry it only raises partially, refill, cycle, refill, cycle ... over and over until it is finally full with all the air bubbles out.

if you have to break it down and fix the seals, then assemble with all rams fully depressed and fill system on bench by adding oil as they lift from a hot-wired 12v battery.

 

[upnatm]

Re: 2003 J90PL4ST Four Stroke Tilt/Trim

Thanks for the fast reply! After letting it sit for a few minutes, and cracking the fill plug to check the oil level, the unit bagan working normally. I bled it, topped it off, and reinstalled it.

 

[upnatm]

Re: 2003 J90PL4ST Four Stroke Tilt/Trim

OK...the pump runs like a champ when the blue/green is connected directly to 12v, but when everything is reconnected to the solenoids, all I get is the clicking sound of the contacts closing, both up and down. As stated above, I used the shop manual to troubleshoot, and the relays checked out fine. One other thing I checked was the voltage between blue and green at the solenoid, with power and while operating the switch up/down and I read 1vdc/-1vdc respectively.
At this point, I can't make any sense of the situation. If the contacts are closing, shouldn't I get 12vdc/-12vdc up/down?