Trim not working?

[adampw1983]

Hi, I have a 1984 Seaswirl with the 3.8 liter. After the river today, I noticed while I was driving that the drive was bouncing while driving down the road. I lowered the drive and tried to trim up, but it would not move. The trim motor is running, but the boat motor is not moving. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I am new to boating and had this boat given to me a few weeks ago. Thanks!

 

[adampw1983]

Re: Trim not working?

I should also note that I can move the drive up and down by hand a couple of inches. Didn't do this before.

 

[Levinz11]

Re: Trim not working?

What kind of drive is on the boat? How did you see it "bouncing" while you were driving?

 

[adampw1983]

Re: Trim not working?

It is a OMC Sterndrive. I had the drive raised and I can see a few inches of the drive in my rear view mirror.

 

[Levinz11]

Re: Trim not working?

It is a OMC Sterndrive. I had the drive raised and I can see a few inches of the drive in my rear view mirror.

You'll need to let us know specifically which OMC drive you have. Stringer, Cobra, SX. Post a pic.

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Trim not working?

We'll give the newbie a break, here and make giant leaps of assumption. Being an 1984, he has to have the latest stringer drive, the full mechanical shift. One big hint (eat your heart out Merc Owners) is that he can see the tip of the drive, when up, in his rear view mirror. Even the OMC Cobras can't do that.

Having made that assumption, he most likely has either a broken tilt sector shaft, a broken hammer blow coupler or a broken tilt motor shaft. I would start by pulling the tilt motor and checking the slotted end, the coupler and the slotted end of the sector shaft.

 

[adampw1983]

Re: Trim not working?

Tahnk you for the replies. I will try to post a pic when I get home. I was looking at it last night, and it looks like it is hydraulic driven. It appears as if it is low or out of hydraulic fluid because it moves freely, yet the trim motor runs. Where do u add hydraulic fluid?

 

[Howard Sterndrive]

Re: Trim not working?

here is where you add, so you can operate it to find the leak:

use a hydraulic jack oil (hardware store), or light engine oil like 0W20 or 5W20 (easier to find) a bit heavy but it will work

the trim cylinders like to leak... a couple of horror stories where the oil rotted the stringers.... that's why I don't use ATF or anything with a lot of additives.

 

[adampw1983]

Re: Trim not working?

here is where you add, so you can operate it to find the leak:

use a hydraulic jack oil (hardware store), or light engine oil like 0W20 or 5W20 (easier to find) a bit heavy but it will work

the trim cylinders like to leak... a couple of horror stories where the oil rotted the stringers.... that's why I don't use ATF or anything with a lot of additives.

Thank you for your help! I will start there and see what turns out.