Hydraulic tilt question

[stayman79]

I bought a boat about 3 years ago that has a 1989 40hp Evinrude with a built-in hydraulic power tilt system. It has worked fine until recently when it started acting really sluggish and sounding weak to raise the motor. At first I thought the battery was weak, and it was a little low, but even when fully charged it acted the same way. I checked the fluid and it's full, but I don't know what else to do. Lately it may work, sluggishly and weak sounding, for one or two cycles up and down and then just quit and not work for several minutes.

Does this mean anything to anyone? If not, would the place I usually bring the motor for service be the place to go?

Thanks!

[Valv]

It's the electric motor on your power tilt. You can have a shop (not boat shop) rebuild it or replace it with a new one but will be expensive.

If you can DIY some, you can open it and check brushes, they might be worn out or plain dirty.

[Surface Tension]

First thing is make sure the battery is good and fully charged. Next is check the battery connections and then the connection at the relays and switch(s)

If they all check good then I'd say the brushs in the motor are worn or hanging up. A electric motor/alternator shop will be able to help you there. One way to trouble shoot the motor is trace its pair of wires from the motor to a relay, disconnect that pair and and connect to a battery.

[Northlander]

Check the battery? Thats great advice S.T. Someone should have done that before the Lake Superior outing.

[Valv]

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Check the battery? Thats great advice S.T. Someone should have done that before the Lake Superior outing.

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Why ? Do you know of anybody that had problem with his boat at the landing ? I've never had that happening to me, I am a FM Pro......

We spend countless hours telling people what to do and how to get ready, I don't think you'll ever see us from FM "caught with the pants down" at the landing.....

Not many people can carry an avatar like mine.....

[Deitz Dittrich]

my guess like Surface tension says.. you probably got a dirty trim eng.. and you can as stated, try a do it yourself or have a shop do it. On many motors, to get to all the screws to take it apart you need to remove one side of the motor mount, depending on how big an eng you have this can be easy or in my case (merc 175hp) it was very hard!!!! VERY HARD!!!.. however, I cleaned the brushes and put it back together and it still works great and that was about 5 yreas ago.(I sold that boat, but stil know the guy who owns it.)

[Valv]

Dietz, I had a 150 Evinrude where I replaced a brush spring with....a ballpen spring. I was at a resort with no shops around and I intended to use all my days left.

It worked great for 2 more yeras then I sold the boat.

[stayman79]

Thanks for all of the advice guys. I'm fairly cabable at trying to do things myself, but electrical motors are foreign to me. So much so that if I took it apart and thought the brushes looked dirty, what would I clean them with? I called around and talked with several people, most suspected that it was worn-out, shot. No one actually mentioned it could just be dirty. The electric motor itself is $230-250, one guy will get me the motor and I can put it in, the other places want to put it in themselves. I might have to look inside and see.

Question: If it's dirty, would it just plain quit? Yesterday it wouldn't even make a sound.

Thanks a bunch!

[Valv]

Take it apart and see what's wrong, could be a brush spring is melted or rusted out (like mine) or stuck, or the rotor dirti like the brushes.

I used brake parts cleaner if I cannot find any electric parts cleaner.

You can take it to a electric motor repair shop, it should cost around $ 50/$80 to have completely rebuilt. If you ask a dealer it will charge you an arm and a leg, they are notorious to cost a couple of hundred, which is way too much. You can buy a whole good used complete tilt unit on Ebay for $ 200

[stayman79]

Well I finally had the time to try to fix this thing. I took it off the boat...what a job that was! I swear they build things so it's near impossible to do yourself. Looking back I probably could have left it on, but initially I was assuming this was a replacement situation. Anyway, I opened it up and it looked pretty good except one ground was corroded. I fixed that and cleaned it up a little, plugged it in and it whirred like new. Another 1.5 hours putting in back on the boat, filled it with fliud and it works like a charm. I hope it lasts!

Thanks guys, you helped me save $280 on a new electric tilt motor.

[Valv]

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Thanks guys, you helped me save $280 on a new electric tilt motor.

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See thats where you are wrong, we know your address and now we'll send our "consulting" invoice....

[Deitz Dittrich]

YEe haw valv- sounds like we get to have a party now.. LOL