Trim sending unit

[HighTrim]

Evening Gents....

I have an 89 4.3 Merc with the Mercruiser Alpha One drive.

The trim gauge is not working, tested it ok, then determined that the sending unit is bad. My question is, does the whole drive have to come off, bellows, etc... or is their an easier way? If freshwater, can this be cut and spliced or is that not really an option. I suppose I could use this as an excuse to do the bellows and water line while Im at it, but they are not really needed as of now. But if Im taking her all apart may as well, the Gimbal bearing and u joints are fine.

 

[HighTrim]

Re: Trim sending unit

bump ^^

 

[jaxnjil]

Re: Trim sending unit

cris; i just had to change mine and the kit comes with both trim switch and sending unit switch to change units and wireing to plugin in the transom. you need to remove the drive ect.
that being said my early alpha had bullet conectors and could have been changed with out rerouting the wires.
some one before me had changed the trim switch and cut and soldered the wires back together then shrink wraped them. this is way the early ones were done and seemed to work. mine was still working ok.
that said i chose to change mine to the new style and route the wires inside transom like the kit is made to do.

 

[HighTrim]

Re: Trim sending unit

Ty for your response. I agree it should be done properly. Would be nice if it just had bullet connectors to plug and play with though wouldnt it!

 

[HighTrim]

Re: Trim sending unit

Could you not cut off the old sender, wire in bullet connectors, then seal it well with heat shrink? I never see salt water, but will this set up fail? I have just talked to a guy that says he has done it? Curious minds want to know

 

[jaxnjil]

Re: Trim sending unit

i wasnt clear. thats the way the early alphas were. someone had done that with mine and it was still working. i wouldnt bother to wire in the conecters. just splice and heat shrink joint.
if you want to get to the lake and dont have time run wires to inside of transom this would work
i didnt do if because i had time to fix it right and figured mercuirser must have had a good reason to change to the conector in side the boat.