Re: Tilt and Trim please help
Your tilt/trim unit is correct for your engine. Now: Once you tilt the engine down, do you hold the trim button? Correct operation on this unit is first the tilt cylinder moves then upon continued motor operation, the trim cylinder (five bolt center cylinder) moves. The trim cylinder moves much more slowly than the tilt.
Sometimes the center cylinder does stick. Try smacking it a couple of times with a heavy hammer to free it.
I really hesitate to recommend removing the pentagonal top plate and cleaning the cylinder since it is a given that you will snap at least one bolt
From the last photo it does appear that you have installed the stainless contact plate for the center cylinder ram. If the ram is NOT touching the plate, it means that the whole assembly is twisting a bit around the mounting shaft in the clamps. One cure for this is to unmount the engine and put a 1/8 thick hard aluminum plate on the back of the transom. This provides a bit less flexible spot for the assembly to bear on so it may not twist as much and the center ram will be positioned correctly---maybe.