Alpha 1 Drive won't go down

[UncleWillie]

When you jumped the Green/Blue Wires directly to the Battery POS, if the motor was good, you should have had a good health/scary spark. The pump motor draws a lot of current, which is why the solenoids are needed.
If the Pump Assembly or Pump Motor itself were frozen and did not turn, the spark would have been even bigger!
No spark, dead motor! .... OR ... The Pump Motor has a bad ground.

Jump the Green/Blue Motor wires to the Battery POS again.
Place a meter on the Black/Ground Pump Wire.
If it stays near zero, <2v, Bad Pump!
If it goes above 6v, Bad ground!

 

[jayhanig]

Man, I love this forum. I took my boat out today for my first cruise of the season. I keep it out in the driveway under a cover and the battery is connected to a tender 24/7/365. So I went to the ramp, dumped it in the water and she started right up. Had an excellent ride and all was well until I got back to the dock. I shut off the engine and tried to raise the Alpha 1 outdrive. Click. Several tries only got me several clicks. No effort from the hydraulic pump to lift whatsoever.

So in desperation I cranked the engine back to life. Hit the button and "whir"... up the outdrive started. I shut the engine down again so as not to run my impeller dry and it continued to work as normal. When I got home and flushed my engine, she worked as normal. But I was left with a foreboding sense of impending doom. If it did it to me once, it will do it again.

So I come to the forum and the very first thread I see is this one. OUTSTANDING! So I will look into replacing those two solenoids and consider this a minor speedbump. Thanks, guys.

 

[meder24]

So I removed the entire pump/motor assembly today. I was very relieved to see that the out drive lowered all the way once the hydraulic lines were removed from the pump. I am to be out of town all week for work, is there any issue with leaving the lines unconnected? Most if not all the oil obviously came out when the out drive went down and I don't want to cause damage with a cylinder drying out or something.
I was able to confirm that the motor on the pump is in fact dead while testing it on my work bench out of the boat. I am ordering a new pump motor and am hopeful and confident this will solve my problem.

 

[UncleWillie]

Rubber-band some clean plastic sandwich bags over the ends of the hoses to keep out the dirt and collect the drips.
It will take months or longer for any drying to even start to happen. 30w oil doesn't tend to evaporate very quickly.

 

[meder24]

Thank you UncleWillie, I did go back and cover up the ends of the hoses exactly as you mentioned.

 

[jayhanig]

1) I apologize since I apparently hijacked the thread for a moment when I posted my tilt-trim situation here earlier; I have since learned this is considered rude. 2) I thought I might as well post the solution to my outdrive problem: hinky wiring. The solenoids ended up being healthy; the wiring needed the help. All better now.

 

[meder24]

Installed my new pump motor this weekend. I tested the new motor before installing to assure it worked, and it obviously did. Once I installed it on the boat, i was alarmed to find it did not work. I suspected that the solenoids, which I assume are to be grounded to the mounting plate, were no longer being grounded sufficiently in this manner. Therefore, I ran a dedicated ground wired directly from the battery cable, which attaches to the mounting plate, and all worked great.