Trim Gauge troubleshooting.......

[Fiat4Fun]

Howdy,
Working on my 1986 Chris Craft Scorpion with a 260HP Alpha One. A few years back, I had the transom done and been using the boat and slowly getting things "back together". So now I am working on the trim gauge. I thought I would ask for some things to check before I dive in.
A couple of things:
1. Trim gauge drops all the way down when power is turned off.
2. Trim gauge goes to the top when power is on.
3. Trim button on throttle works, and limits the amount of travel.
4. Check for power at gauge, good there.
5. Disconnect send wire and the gauge drops.
6. New senders on Alpha one when the out drive was off during the transom repair.

So, I have not messed with much yet. I did try a different gauge, and same results.
It may just need to be adjusted at the out drive, but thought I should check the wring or any other tips before I dive in.....
Any advice is greatly appreciated. Enjoy

 

[alldodge]

Lower drive full down
Remove starboard side gimbal ring sensor.
Turn key ON and then turn sensor by hand to see if you can get it to move the needle.
Get needle close to where it should be and reinstall for final adjustment

 

[Fiat4Fun]

Finally got around with playing with the trim sender. I tried to turn it mounted on the outdrive, no changes. Removed it from the out drive and tried turning it, not changes. Just pegged in the up position. Any links or ideas on haw to trace down the sender wire?
Any other advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Bondo]

Finally got around with playing with the trim sender. I tried to turn it mounted on the outdrive, no changes. Removed it from the out drive and tried turning it, not changes. Just pegged in the up position. Any links or ideas on haw to trace down the sender wire?
Any other advice is greatly appreciated.

Ayuh,.... It's probably rotted in two, in under the transom, before it goes into the motorbox,.....
There are two sets of wires just inside the transom with butt connectors, 1 is the gauge set, the other is the limit switch set,.....

 

[Fiat4Fun]

Ok, well today I got my meter out, ran a test wire to see if the butt connectors at the motor to the trim sender were good. They look fine. I was able to turn the sender to get a different reading at the butt connectors at the motor. One wire went to ground at the engine, the other wire was find to the sender to the gauge.
So at least I know the wires are good. However my buddy helping out hooked the 12V to the sender on the gauge ;-(
So, we checked everything out, and wired it right. The gauge just sits in the down position with power off or on. Moving the drive does nothing with the trim motor. I took the sender off the drive and turned it by hand and nothing.....

So the only thing left is to check the wiring from the ground to the gauge and the motor. OR maybe we killed the gauge with 12V hooked to the sending lead on the gauge?

I might try to get another sender and test the gauge outside the boat, to see if there is something else going on...... Any other thoughts are appreciated....

 

[04fxdwgi25]

If you put 12 vdc to the sender terminal, you probably smoked the gauge.

I have the teleflex gauge testing / troubleshooting guide, but lately nothing can be uploaded to the site.

Try this site to download the guide:

https://www.projectk.co.jp/marine/pdf/teleflexmeter.pdf

 

[Fiat4Fun]

Cool, will check out the link, thanks,,,,
The gauge is a VDO, but the wiring looks the same, I will try testing the gauge
Thanks

 

[Fiat4Fun]

Well, I did get some time to check it out. The one gauge seems like it acts normal. I made sure the wire is good from the motor/sender connector to gauge is good. The wire off the engine is black with white strip. The wire at the gauge is Purple. I did noticed with testing with a meter that both wires at the motor seemed grounded, so will look at the terminal block.
Thought about hooking up the gauge to the wires directly off sender in the engine compartment. ..... Also want to make sure the ground at the gauge and at the terminal block are the same......