2006 Mercury 9.9 tilt stuck in up position

Hi,

I have a 2006 Mercury 9.9 HP outboard with manual tilt. I'm having some issues with the manual tilt not working properly.

Normally, if it is in gear, I can lift the back of the motor and tilt it forward and it will lock in the up position. When I want to tilt it back down, I again lift on the back (lift it just a bit higher) and then it will tilt back down to operating position.

As of a few days ago, it will tilt up and lock just fine, but I can't get it to tilt back down without manually pushing on what I believe is called the "carrier - trim pin" in the schematics. This is pretty annoying as it is difficult to reach from inside the boat.

Full disclosure, this motor gets abused pretty thoroughly. It is on my duck hunting boat and has been breaking ice and running through weeds the last month, so I might have lost a spring or a part or knocked something out of alignment. I just cannot figure out what! Being able to smoothly tilt up and then tilt down is super helpful for clearing veg off the prop as well.

Any advice on how to fix this would be greatly appreciated!

The link below should be a video of my motor/the issue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2bCl_NMjOA

The first thing I would do would be to use marine grease on the whole thing.
The tilt pin track, the pins, the tilt control lever, and the tilt lock lever.
It sounds a lot like it is stuck in "tilt lock".

whitegreg56 said:

The first thing I would do would be to use marine grease on the whole thing.
The tilt pin track, the pins, the tilt control lever, and the tilt lock lever.
It sounds a lot like it is stuck in "tilt lock".

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice.

I thought I had greased everything pretty good --- I always lather it on everything before duck season to try and help prevent water from freezing everywhere.

Turns out, I didn't do as good of a job as I thought! There were a couple pins (not sure that is the right term) that were stuck and not moving like they should. I was able to free them up and grease them up. Hopefully that'll fix the tilt issue! If anyone in the future looks at this, they are the pins highlighted in yellow in the image.

I did notice the motor now allows me to tilt it in forward/neutral/reverse instead of just reverse, but I think that is unrelated to the prior issue of tilt being stuck up.

I'm guessing the new issue can be remedied by playing with the reverse lock --- oh the joys of winter boating!

It should only tilt up in forward and neutral. Should lock down in reverse. Yes this early cold and snow should drive down the Big Bills.....my favorites.

I just wanted to post what I have learned from having the same exact issue as what was reported here.... Manual tilt. Motor goes up but will not relase and come back down. I have a 2005 8hp and I afound that the 'Stopper Tilt' pin (see your picture with the yellow highlights) actually broke. You need to look underneath and you will find a spring, washer and a location where an e-clip(ring) would attach. This spring keeps this tilt pin centered in one spot so that it will follow a mechanical channel and hold that piece in allowing the motor to return down to the 'operating' position.

I'm new to this forum so I'm trying to learn how to attache a couple of images. I'm trying to add the image you had showing the yellow highlighted areas to add grease and added where to look. I've also included the parts that need to be replaced. Bottom line is that pin has to line up properly in order follow the grooves or channel to allow proper operation. If that pin is too far left or right it won't allow the motor to manually tilt as it should.

Hope this helps you or anyone else who encounters this particular problem.

BemidjiMercury said:

Thanks for the advice.

I thought I had greased everything pretty good --- I always lather it on everything before duck season to try and help prevent water from freezing everywhere.

Turns out, I didn't do as good of a job as I thought! There were a couple pins (not sure that is the right term) that were stuck and not moving like they should. I was able to free them up and grease them up. Hopefully that'll fix the tilt issue! If anyone in the future looks at this, they are the pins highlighted in yellow in the image.

I did notice the motor now allows me to tilt it in forward/neutral/reverse instead of just reverse, but I think that is unrelated to the prior issue of tilt being stuck up.

I'm guessing the new issue can be remedied by playing with the reverse lock --- oh the joys of winter boating!

Click to expand...

Look for the tilt lock on the side of the bracket. If it is engaged it prevents the pin from coming out of the slot. That motor should lock in neutral and reverse and release in forward.