120 HP Mercury Force Tilt

I have a 1997 Mercury force outboard. I replaced the tilt motor today and added new fluid. It went up and down a couple of times then quit. The tilt motor runs but nothing happens. We manually lifted motor filled the reservoir with the quick silver tilt trim fluid. i closed the lower valve and hand tightened the fill cap. The motor will not raise. When we remove the lock it did not hold, we had to lower it by hand then lifted it by hand again added more fluid till it ran out, we did that several times it finally worked up and down a couple of times then quit again just the motor runs. Not sure if i am bleeding it properly or what. One more thing the last time it worked it ran up all the way and there was like a click sound, did not work after that. When i first backed off the reliefe valve it came all the way out. the eclip was still on it. What is the e-clip for on the relief valve.

the clip prevents the release from coming out too far and falling into the lake.

you simply fill the reservoir and run the system. at the top of every stroke check the fluid. when it is lifting all the way and fluid is up to filler hole then system is full. it is self bleeding.

since you have a new motor then you may also need a new driveshaft. the trim motor should stand up off the base about 1/8" if the driveshaft is not lined up with the pump gears. if the motor sits flush without driveshaft lined up then you need a longer driveshaft.

if the gears spin, if it has fluid, and it still doesn't lift then you probably need to rebuild or replace the hydraulics.