Putting down out drive in winter and solenoid failure?

[hostage]

I have been putting my out drive down in the winter to save on wear/tear on the bellows. I am wondering if this is causing the up solenoid on my out drive motor to fail? I think that I might have lowered more than needed and the tires deflated a little over the winter to cause it to put too much weight on the lower unit. I replaced the up solenoid a couple years ago. This year when I went to get it out of storage, I had issues raising the trim. I am wondering if that is the problem. The solenoid is responding unreliably, we thought it was the battery at first. When I get a chance I will diagnose the solenoid further with a multi meter, though I am wondering what is causing the solenoid to fail.

 

[Bondo]

Nope,.... Got nothin' to do with it,....

I'd sooner think it's corroded wirin' ends at the solenoids,....

 

[alldodge]

The whole boat could be hanging by the out drive and it will have no effect on the solenoid. The solenoid is just a heavy switch activated by a light duty switch. My guess is you have something which is corroded and has yet to be found. Don't forget the three prong plug, the pins can look great and still not pass any current. Same issue happened to me a long time ago

 

[hostage]

So the old solenoid could have been fine and when I replaced it, it might have removed enough corrosion for it to work? I love electrical issues...

 

[hostage]

So I got it to go up and down by shorting out the two leads. When I press the trailer trim, I hear the solenoid click. Any ideas? I cleaned the hell out of the terminals.

 

[interalian]

Solenoids can click but not conduct power. I'm a cheapo, so when one I was fixing went on the fritz, I opened it up and found this:

I flipped the disc over, and rotated the contacts in the body. All good for another bunch of years now.

 

[hostage]

This couldn't be a problem with the trim senders, could it? The normal up trim didn't acuate the solenoid, but trailer trim did. Down has been working fine. It looks like 3 leads come from the throttle, I did get continuity for down and trailer. Don't recall if I was able to get continuity for regular up.

Edit: Interalian, now that I think about it, it has to be a dirty, faulty solenoid as it actuates when I short the two leads, but not when the solenoid fires. Once I clean the solenoid and remount it, I will be able to raise the trim with the trailer trim. Though still trying to figure out why down trim isn't working. I need to find a wiring diagram that explains the switches on the throttle. I have 3 switches on the throttle, though only 3 leads that plug into the trim motor.

 

[alldodge]

If the trim limit on the drive is not working this will keep the trim switch from working in the up direction. As before check the continuity with the three prong plug

 

[H20Rat]

Verify the correct signals are coming from the control handle also. In my case, the wires were frayed to almost nothing where they pivot in the controller, so when I hit the up button, it was actually activating both circuits and nothing would work.

 

[hostage]

I had the trim senders replaced a few years back, granted the guy who did it wasn't a certified mechanic by any means. Which sender controls the trailer trim, port or starboard?

It looks like Purple/White is the normal up trim. My continuity test of the 3 prong plug is down stream of the problem , I am only testing the three prongs and none of the are purple/white. I guess the problem lays in between the Up Switch on the throttle to where the trim sender plugs into the blue wire. I have limited this problem, though I am unsure as to wear to start as I have no idea where the sender plugs into the blue wire. Any suggestions on where to go from here?

My next boat is not going to have trim senders or bellows! I just wish direct drive boats weren't soo expensive.

 

[alldodge]

Trim limit is on the starboard side
To by pass the switch find the Blu/Wht wire and Pur/Wht connecters and jump them together
The Pur/Wht applies power direct from the Red/Pur to the Blue/Wht to bypass the limit switch (this is the trailer up circuit)

 

[hostage]

Trim limit is on the starboard side
To by pass the switch find the Blu/Wht wire and Pur/Wht connecters and jump them together
The Pur/Wht applies power direct from the Red/Pur to the Blue/Wht to bypass the limit switch (this is the trailer up circuit)

There wouldn't happen to be a "standard"/normal place that this would be located? I am assuming/hoping that it will be located near the pump.

 

[alldodge]

There wouldn't happen to be a "standard"/normal place that this would be located? I am assuming/hoping that it will be located near the pump.

They use to be strung behind the motor going to the top of the transom assembly and there would be 2 pairs on 2 black wires (one set trim and other set went to trim gauge). Later years they placed the trim wires on top the solenoids of the trip pump. There would be molded rubber clips that the wires were held in place

Follow the Blu/Wht wire coming from the trim pump

 

[hostage]

They use to be strung behind the motor going to the top of the transom assembly and there would be 2 pairs on 2 black wires (one set trim and other set went to trim gauge). Later years they placed the trim wires on top the solenoids of the trip pump. There would be molded rubber clips that the wires were held in place

Follow the Blu/Wht wire coming from the trim pump

Found it behind the engine and confirmed continuity of the trim up switch. I also took apart the solenoid and removed corrosion off one of the leads and flipped that disc over. Cleaning out the solenoid helped and now it works. Oddly enough I had an "is it plugged in?" moment. Due to the fact that my boat is parked on a hill combined with the fact the tongue angled up as high as it can go, it created an optical illusion of the lower unit being lower than it actually was. In short the ground is closer to the out drive than it normally is and the trim sender was doing its job. I just didn't lower the trim enough

 

[alldodge]

Cool, thanks for sharing. Things like this happens to me more often then I like to admit