OMC King Cobra Tilt Issue

Hey Guys....hoping someone may be able to help me out. I have a 91 Chris Craft Concept 228. It has a 460 King Cobra in it. I just put the boat in the water this past Friday and everything went well. When I went back out to the boat on Saturday, I went to operate my power tilt to lower and raise my outdrive on my throttle, and it didn't work. The previous day when I launched the boat I used it and it worked perfect. When I was hitting the button this time, it was not doing anything. It normally makes a noise (like the pump operating) and it wasn't doing that at all. It was as if there was no power to the tilt. I went in the engine compartment and looked around to see anything obvious. I messed around with one of the wire harnesses that has a large round black plug connector that is to the left of the tilt pump, and as I was holding it in my hand it came apart. I thought this was the issue. I plugged it back together and tried the tilt again and still nothing. I had a buddy with me and had him jiggle the plug connection around while I operated the tilt button on the throttle and while he was doing that, it started working again! But as soon as he would take his hands off of it, it would stop again. Long story short, we could not get it so that it would work all the time without holding it together in our hands. I put some dielectric grease on the plug connections thinking that would help, and it did not. This plug connection is obviously the source of the problem, but now I'm stumped as to what I should try next.

Does anyone have any suggestions here? I'm pretty much at a loss. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

My first reaction would be to cut out the plug and replace the connections with heat shrink spade crimp connectors. The wires are color coded, so you can't get them mixed up. The rubber plugs can actually come apart on the inside, with no way to repair except to replace. I had this happen with the main harness. With most Cobra parts being made from Unobtanium, you'll have to improvise or find someone who has been hoarding old King Cobra wiring harness parts if you have to have the original parts.

There are other take apart waterproof connectors out there. You need one that is good for at least three wires.

The other thought I had would be to find the wire that is connected to the trim pump and bypass the plug. You think that would work? Everything else is being powered by the plug. My only concern is I have no idea which wire is powering the trim.

The cable assembly is NLA from BRP. You will have to bypass the plug by either eliminating the plug and connecting the wires together directly or install a new, different waterproof connector. However way you do it, there are three wires going to the trim pump...Red, Blue and Green. Red is the hot feed, green is up and blue is down.....or is it blue is up and green is down? I can't remember. It doesn't matter, just connect color to color and you are good.

depending on where the plug is located you can put a juction panel in i had the same problem on a 81 model and i mounted a junction block back of boat 8 inches from trim pump

I would really not want to cut off the connector and hard wire it. When you said large connector did you mean the big black cannon connector for the main harness that has the 10 wires in it or did you mean a smaller one that had 3 wires in it? The 10 wire one should have a stainless hose clamp around to prevent it from coming apart, but there should be nothing in that cable to cause your problem. See the link below for your wiring diagram, should be a 3 wire harness coming off the tilt/trim asm that goes up to the remote control.

http://www.selocmarine.com/content/manuals/3404/pdf/340410w161.pdf

It is the big black round connector. I would estimate it has 8-10 pins in it. It's not the smaller one. There is no stainless hose clamp around it to prevent it from coming apart. This connector definitely is the issue bob. Like I said earlier, if we sit there and jiggle this connector around we can get the trim pump to work. As soon as we take our hands off of it, nothing. One thing I noticed yesterday is that the plug has roughly 8-10 pin connectors on it. All of the pins stick out fairly far except for one. It is the one that is labeled (#4). Is there a possibility that this could be the issue? Maybe that pin got pushed in or busted off or something? I'm afraid to pull on it with needle nose in fear that I will pull it all the way out. What are your thoughts?

According to the diagram the #4 pin is not used and as I said earlier there is nothing in that harness directly tied to the tilt and trim however it should have a hose clamp on it due to vibration to keep it together or you will definitely have other problems. Even the 3 wire harness for the tilt/trim switch is separate it may be tied to the bigger cable so when you disturb one you are also moving the other, look around for the 3 wire harness coming off the trim/tilt asm and follow it to the black connector and check there.

Thanks for the feedback Bob. I think I know the 3 wire harness you are talking about. I believe it also has a plug connector. Is that correct? I never actually messed around with that one. Maybe I will unplug that one and mess around with it to see what happens. I also agree with you that I need to add a hose clamp to the big plug connection. It almost seems like it doesn't plug together very well. Almost as if the whole wire harness is to tight and needs some more slack in it.

Hey Bob, I will also try to run out to the boat this evening and snap a few pics of the plug connections that I am talking about (And the one I believe you are referencing) and you can let me know your thoughts.

It may just be a loose connection inside the main connector. Wiggle it apart and see if there is any corrosion on the contacts. Also try to slightly spread open the slits in the male plug ends so they fit in the female ends a little more snug. A pencil eraser should do the trick to remove light corrosion. Spray Boeshield or use a light coat of dielectric grease inside the connector before reconnecting and use the clamp on it.

Ok....I will try that. I did already put some dielectric grease in the plug connections. I will try to spread the pins apart to make them fit tighter. Going out to the boat this evening so we'll see what happens. Can't wait to get this fixed so I can enjoy it. Weather is finally starting to break in Ohio!

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I really appreciate it.

Ended up fixing it this weekend guys. Found the bad wire. Just ended up bypassing it and wired it directly to one of the batteries. Thanks again for all your help.

Glad you got it working. Would have liked to have known which wire and if you did go directly to the battery did you you protect it with a fuse?

It was the black ground wire. It was one of the wires coming off the trim pump itself. I did not have to mess with the big plug connection at all. I did go directly to the battery and did not protect it with a fuse. How would I go about doing that Bob? What's the concern since I didn't?

tmakows said:

It was the black ground wire. It was one of the wires coming off the trim pump itself. I did not have to mess with the big plug connection at all. I did go directly to the battery and did not protect it with a fuse. How would I go about doing that Bob? What's the concern since I didn't?

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That's OK if it's the ground wire (you never fuse the ground side of a circuit in a boat) that means the power wire is still going through the factory harness and is already protected. If you think of it again I would still put a SS hose clamp around that big black connector just as a precaution to help hold it together. Time to enjoy it now

Great....thanks again for all your help and feedback. I agree with you on the hose clamp. That thing comes apart way too easily.