Logo

Trim pump stuck in full down position

1973 Browning Marine

Regular Contributor
Went down to Cape May New Jersey with my daughter and a friend on my birthday on Sunday. Went to a public dock and launched the boat. I was warming up the engine and all seemed to be alright. Had my hands full with two 9 year olds. lol Anyway, headed out of the canal towards channel, which by the way was a no wake zone, so I was going dead slow. Another boat was trying to enter the canal, so I gave way and let it pass. Meanwhile, I had drifted about 25-30 feet from the starboard bank of canal, as I did this I trimmed up the drive (or so I thought). Looked at trim gauge which was reading full down. (and it stayed there) Initial thought was that the trim gauge took a dump, so I continued around a point and into channel. Next thing you know I was tapping rock or whatever with the prop. Not real hard but just the same, I hit bottom. I was saying to myself, this is not happening.(gotta laugh) Boat ran perfectly on three other occasions without a hitch, so I thought all was well. I knew at that moment that the trim was stuck in the full down position and I was going to have a problem in shallows but figured it was a solenoid that may have taken a dump and figured I could manually jump the pump motor with a piece of wire to get it back up. We continued on our way through intercoastal waterway without a hitch. I tried to salvage the day and did not want to have to tell the two girls we would have to head back in so went to the very edge of Delaware Bay and fished for a couple hours without a problem. Never raised rpms above 2000 and was basically just putting along at around 1500 rpms. Made it back to dock ever so carefully. I could hear the solenoids clicking in both the up and down positions on the control so I know I was getting power to one side of each of the solenoids. Also noticed that the oil in the power trim reservoir was milky looking. I used the original trim pump that I had gotten off of another boat and went through all the bleeding procedures and everything seemed to be working properly the first three times out. The cylinders that I used came off of the same boat when I did rebuild and I did not drain out the old oil, so I am thinking the milky color might be contaminated (old) oil that was still in them. Question: Is there a way water could be entering into the hydraulic trim system? The reservoir at full trim down was still a little less than half full and I did not detect any oil leaks anywhere. The cylinders must have some sort of check valves because I had to remove one of the pins on drive and tie up stern drive to get it on trailer. (oh my God what a pain in the ass! (lol) I failed to mention that I was unable to hear the pump motor when clicking the up and down off the controller. The motor never spun. Is it possible that the pump and or pump motor took a crap? It worked perfectly the first three times out so I can't figure it out at this point. Any help would be appreciated. thanks, Tom (P.S. The drive is a 1988 Alpha One generation one)
 
The clicking solenoid doesn't mean they are good.It sounds like the electric motor is not working.
Water is picked up at the seals.
If it works today.It might not work this afternoon.No way to figure out when something is gonna go.
It's been in salt water so,start replacing the seals and completly drain the system.Unhook all the fittings and drain all the oil.
Take the motor/pump out and drain it.Then test the solenoids.Replace or rebuild the motor.J
 
Back
Top