Here is something my local Merc mechanic told me. Merc used to have a dash mounted switch. It used one solenoid on the tilt/trim motor and the wiring was rather heavy gauge. Once they added the switch to the control lever they went to a two solenoid set up. This way a smaller gauge wire could fit up into the control handle. Using two solenoids, the amperage was less, thus allowing for a lighter gauge wire.
