Logo

Engine Tilt Issues

Dauntless14

New member
Hello everybody,
I have a 50HP 3 Cylinder 2 stroke Mercury that has been giving me problems with the Tilt.
I can not pinpoint it, so I will give you the symptoms:
Occasionally the tilt up, or the tilt down will not work.
I have replaced the solenoid,
and the symptoms are the same regardles if I use the tilt switch on the throttle, or the one in the engine.
If I unplug, ann plug the solenoids in, sometimes it works again.
Then it will work for a while, and stop working.
If I take the 2 wires that go to the harness and switch them around, (up is down and down is up) it starts working again, and then stops after a few weeks, and suddenly, after a few minutes, runs again.

I have tried to see if there is a ground problem, with the solonoids, but they seem to be all properly grounded.
I thought that it is perhaps a motor problem, but banging on the motor did not help, but again switching the cables worked.

Perhaps I have a bad switch. I can'd imagine that the two switches are in series so that one bad switch would disable the system.

I am pretty sure that it may be a bad ground, or a bad connector in the harness, but playing with the harness did not make things budge. I would think that if it is such an intermittend connection problem, pulling/pushing the wires or the harness would have make things at least momentarily work, but it does not. Only disconnecting and reconnecting, and sometimes, after running the engine for 10-15 minutes, it starts up working again.

So I am on the edge because I never know if I will be able to bring the engine down, or if I will be able to trim it.

Is there anything that I am missing ?
Thank you very much
Armand
Boston, MA
 
Battery fully charged? Check the acid levels,check it's holding the charge. You should disconnect all wires, one at a time, and clean to shiny making sure all connections are tight,especially the grounds. Put a meter on the switch when the problem occurs to see if you are getting full 12v to the solenoid.Put a jumper on the solenoids to make sure the power is going to the motor.Have a look at the brushes on the motor.Is the armature clean,a light sanding with a very fine sandpaper.
 
I agree w/haventaclue and will add that there are about a dozen bullet connectors in the wiring circuit...they are not my favorite connector. Take each one apart and inspect, sand clean both male and female; roll the sandpaper to get into the female socket. Suspect the not so tight connection...squeeze the female end to tighten it before inserting the male end. Also check all the connections in the shift commander.
 
I agree w/haventaclue and will add that there are about a dozen bullet connectors in the wiring circuit...they are not my favorite connector. Take each one apart and inspect, sand clean both male and female; roll the sandpaper to get into the female socket. Suspect the not so tight connection...squeeze the female end to tighten it before inserting the male end. Also check all the connections in the shift commander.

Thanks for the replies guys.
Battery is fully charged. It's been working fine now, so can't diagnose it. Last time it would go up only after I would bring it down a bit. Brushes on the motor ? I suspect that it is one of those bullet connectors, or a bad ground. The isnside is also dirty from 2-strokr oil leaking off the reservoir cap occasionally when tilted. I need to clean it up and then just deal with every ground and bullet connection.
 
Back
Top