Tilt and Trim Help

[rcav8ter]

Hello Everyone, I need some help with my tilt and trim. I own a 1988 Force 125 with a 1987 tilt and trim I recently purchased and installed. I had a 2 wire system originally and now have a 3 wire system. After installing the the 3 wire system I had to scratch my head and figure out what I wanted to do with the wire, instead of changing the trim switch and pulling wire to the console I decided to ground the black wire to the engine and wire the blue and green wires to the relays as if it was a 2 wire system. The problem is when I trim "up" it trips the breaker and I have to remove the cover and reset in order to finish. Before I even installed the wire I checked it with just battery power and the trim moved the engine like it was light as a feather (fast) now it is S L O W. What the heck did I do wrong? any help will be much appreciated. Thanks

 

[RRitt]

Re: Tilt and Trim Help

2w operation switches both 12v and ground. 3w operation switches 12v only. If you do not disconnect the grounded contact input when going from 2w to 3w then you will create a shorted condition across the motor field windings.

 

[rcav8ter]

Re: Tilt and Trim Help

Thanks RRitt, are you saying disconnect the ground wire alltogether? or ?

 

[RRitt]

Re: Tilt and Trim Help

2w motors reverse direction by flipping polarity. What was 12v becomes ground and what was ground becomes 12v.

3w motors have a common ground with an "UP" blue wire and a "DOWN" green wire. If you ground either blue or green while the other is connected to 12v then you short out (and possibly burn out) the motor.

The motor needs ground but only on the black wire. Rewire the relays so that they make a simple remote controlled switch with one wire for up and another wire for down. If you leave them as they are then you'll short out and eventually ruin something.

 

[rcav8ter]

Re: Tilt and Trim Help

So if I disconnect black wire (terminal 86 on each relay) that will make a simple switch. I am looking at the schematic in the seloc book. 87a is ground for the relay and 86 is ground on the switch right. Do I still need to keep the relay itself grounded( terminal 87a)? Im really confused now.
I am new to the boating world and when I found out the old trim motor was no good I assumed any trim would work as long as the make was the same.
I found a post on here on wiring from a 3 wire to a 2 wire but that does not help since I allready have a 2 wire setup.
If I took terminal wire 87a and wired it to the green wire and the same for the other relay with the blue wire wouldnt that be the simple switch that your talking about? I appologize for the stupidity. Im really trying to figure this out so I dont burn this up or cause a fire or somthing.

 

[RRitt]

Re: Tilt and Trim Help

I don't know. I used to have a wiring diagram comcast shut down the FTP server it was on. Just get a mulitmeter and test it.

When relay is active you should see 12v with 0 ohms rersistance to battery positive. When relay is inactive you should see 0v with open circuit (infinite ohms) to engine ground.

Alternatively you could go to the hardware store and buy a length of very heavy 3c SO cord. The reason they use relays is to avoid voltage drop in wire. If you use heavy enough wire then it isn't an issue. In the factory it was cheaper to install relays than run $20-$40 worth of wire. In the garage it is probably cheaper to buy the wire and keep the wiring simple.