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Trim Gauge problems

kentucky_bill

New member
I have a 90 hp, 4 stroke mercury outboard on a Bennington Pontoon. At the end of last season my trim gauge started acting weird . It would start moving on its own when going down the lake. At the start of this season when I started the motor the light would come on in the guage and the needle would move to the far left of the gauge and would not move when I raised the engine. I made sure I had a good ground contact from the sender. I bought a new gauge and that did not fix the problem. I put the old gauge back on and removed the sender and readjusted it and got the gauge working in my garage. But when I put the boat in the water it did not work. I repeated this process 3 or 4 times. I then bought a new sender, installed and adjusted it. I took the boat to the lake and it worked good all day. The next day I decided to make a small adjustment to the gauge. I raised the motor and turned the ignition on. The needle was slowly moving to the half mark and then to the quarter mark, then settled in the correct position of where I had raised the motor to. I loosened the sender to adjust it and the needle went to the far left position and would not move regardless of what I did to move the sender. I don't know where to go from here.
 
Believe me, I have smacked the gauge several times, both as a try to get it to work and also out of frustration. The needle is not stuck, it moves to the far left when the ignition is on and then to the far right when the ignition is off.
 
The sender only has 2 wires. One is the ground and the other goes to the gauge all wrapped in a big cable. They both have connectors that prevents wiring it incorrectly. I could connect a wire direct from the sender to the gauge is see if perhaps that wire is shorted.
 
I ran a direct wire from the sender to the gauge and the needle still stays in the left position. When I disconnect either the ground wire or the wire coming from the sender the needle goes to the off position to the far right. Any idea what my problem can be????
 
The back of the gauge is a male connector. I removed the female connector and hooked the 4 wires direct to the back of the gauge. I am not sure what you meant about testing the sender with a Ohm meter.
 
Well, since I last posted I have tried several things to fix the problem. First, I got on Youtube and learned how to use a multimeter, then I tested the power wire coming to the gauge which was 12 volts. I also tested the ground wire, which was good. I then tested the sender and found a problem. I learned that the part on the back of the sender that fits into the motor had gotten turned 180 deg, making it non functional. After I moved the dial into its correct position the gauge began to work, but it was still not working consistently . I then reattached the temporary wire from the sender to the gauge and that fixed the inconsistency problem, thus proving that there was a short in the wire going from the sender to the gauge, like Chris had said. So, I knew I had to find a short in the wire. I started looking for the short by first checking to make sure that the connector between the wire coming from the sender running to the motor was completely pushed together. It was, but then I thought even though it is completely pushed in, it may not be making a good connection. So, I disconnected the connector and gave the male part of the connector a good cleaning, reconnected it and that fixed my problem. The gauge is now working great. Thanks Chris.
 
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