94 Force 120HP Trim problem

[ashlyn]

First thank you for all that you do in your blogs. I am a novice mechanic (more like infantile) but your info has been great.



I have a 94 Force 120HP with what was an intermittent trim problem and pray you can tell me it?s the Relays, replace them and I am good to go! I have been having difficulty whereas the trim would not work at all, I start the engine and out of nowhere everything would be fine. Now all I get is a single CLICK from the Relays when I attempt to go up or down. I noticed at one point in my tinkering that the trim motor felt a little warm as well as the positive wire coming from the starter relay and feeding the two trim relays but cold on the other side of the relays (the blue and green wires)? I DO NOT have the circuit breaker between the starter and the relays as I have seen suggested in some of the posts?



This happened to me seven or eight months ago and I took it in and my mechanic yelled at me and said ?WIRE BRUSH MY MAN?. I took off all the connections at the relays one at a time and brushed every one but still have nothing?



Please tell me it?s a $40 repair for two relays that I can do myself and NOT a $200 plus repair for a motor that I am skeptical of doing because I have no idea what I am doing?



I hope you can help! Thanks



Also, I have not tried going directly from the motor to the battery as I just learned of that technique in the blogs today.

 

[ashlyn]

Re: 94 Force 120HP Trim problem

forgive my inexperince and probably seemingly dumb statements. Tonight I tried puttin jumper cables directly from the battery to the blue and green wires. I attached black to negative and red to positive on the battery (not sure it mattered for this test) then I connected the other ends, one each to the blue and green wires, after I got passed the initial sparking the connections started smoking! I got too scared and disconnected before I did anything else. The green wire (where the positive connection was) got really hot as did the trim motor itself! I aborted that attempt as to not being sure if I was doing it right. Please advise on that test!

Then I took a multimeter and measured 12.5 Volts across the battery, at each of the battery feeds to the relays was 12.5 Volts, and I tested the voltage at each of the blue and green wires when disconnected from the relays, these measured between 9 and 12 Volts when the switch was pressed.

Does this tell you anything further as to if my problem is Relay related or if it is trim motor related or anything else it may be?

Please help, on a tight budget and my little boat is my only get away at this time!

 

[Frank Acampora]

Re: 94 Force 120HP Trim problem

IF IT IS a TWO WIRE MOTOR, then green is down and blue is up. If you connect blue to positive and green to ground, there should be a bit of a spark but nothing violent and the tilt should go up. The motor should draw 30 amps or less. If the wires are heating up too hot to touch and you are seeing smoke, then the motor is shorted and needs to either be rebuilt or replaced.

If it is a THREE WIRE MOTOR, black is ground. If you connect blue or green to positive and the other color to negative without using the black ground wire, you are direct shorting the motor.

 

[FLSNAKES]

Re: 94 Force 120HP Trim problem

Ive been having the same problem, except I know I need to replace the tilt relay. THE PROBLEM IS: For the life of me I cant seem to find the relay I need!!! If anyone can help me a bit i need a, Potter and Brumfield (VF4A-35F11-Z07) 40/30A. Thanks -Jake