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Outboard Motor Manual Tilt and Lock

In this video I go through the manual tilt lock bracket and shallow water mechanism on an outboard motor. It's common for older outboards to have this mechanism damaged or missing and it is really handy to have one working properly.

Dangar Marine

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Outboard Motor Manual Tilt and Lock – Video Transcript

Hey there, Danger Stu here. Today's video is on repairing the manual sort of shallow water brackets on a Mercury outboard and is proudly sponsored by MarineEngine.com.

So these brackets I'm talking about are the other sort of the manual lever brackets that you have if you don't have a power trim tilt on your outboard. And they're kind of complicated and they do often go wrong but in this case it was almost completely missing. This is the outboard in question it's a Mercury 30 horsepower two stroke. You can see at the moment down here it's propped up by a bit of wood because this whole shallow water tilt bracket is just completely missing. Fortunately though it's pretty simple that's only a couple of bits. I'll show you, so we got some bolts, leavers, handles, front brackets. and some springs, washers, split pins with connectors bit's, rods, other rods brackets, machine bolts, more Springs, wave washer's, more brackets. All right so it's not as simple as I'd hoped for. I ordered all these bits from the MarineEngine com website. Just from the model number of the outboard. And when you go onto the website you get a parts diagram that you can use to select what you want. Which is what I've used, I've said it before but these parts diagrams as well as being really good way of ordering parts are a really helpful resource when it comes to figuring how to put things together.

So this here is the parts diagram for this bracket and I've printed off the entire page so I can match up the numbers on the diagram with the actual parts numbers which will help me when it comes to selecting the right washers. And those things that aren't so obvious from just looking at them. The bits I'm going start with are these two bits, which is the only bit that I had left from the previous install. And this bit which are the reverse lock arms. So they're kind of similar looking brackets slightly different shape. One goes on the front, one goes on the back. The one that goes on the front I'm going to come around this way and it actually just goes onto these pins here on the side. So this part goes in with this sort of notch pointing downwards. You just you just sort of loop around. What I've ended up doing is taking that first bracket off putting this one on first because it was catching on these side parts of this bracket. Now when I put this one on I've got to make sure I keep this little top flange on the high side of this one. If I get on the other side won't be able to get it back over again. So we're almost there with this. The first one we put on isjust flopping around. I've put the other side on then I just push that up so that it locks in.

So now we've got this one that comes around. And what I can see the forward side of the outboard on those pins and this other one that's just on the outside just sort of flapping around there. But they're in. Now the in next thing I need to do is put this reverse lock rod there through these two brackets to pin them together and then just a split pin stops the rod coming out again. This pin is just sort of wider at one end with a hole for a split pin at the other end. Just slide this through then I'll just pop this little split pin in. So this is sort of stage one done. It's attached to the outboard on these pins and they're locked to each other with this pin right here. Next thing to do is put the handle on that goes here. It's a little bit corroded here though so I'm just going to clean it up a little bit. First one of the things I see that often goes wrong with these is they start getting a bit stiff because none of the parts are that thick or strong.

They bend and then suddenly things are out of alignment and so it cascades from there. So I'll clean this up and we'll put a bit of grease on it just to make sure it moves smoothly. The handle goes on with a bolt like this so it can't be over tightened it's always got this sort of shank section to rotate on. So I'm just going to put a little bit of grease around that section. It's also got a little thin washer there and through the handle then there's another washer that goes on the other side. Now this is ready to go on I'm just going to feed this linkage that looks like this so the end that this tabs closest to goes through the handle. So we will go up through this way and I'm putting that on now just so that I can get it through this side. Once this handle is in place you can't bend the linkage to get one end in and then bend it to get the other end in. So just make sure you put that linkage in place before you attach the handle to the outboard. So we'll just snug this up so it doesn't come undone and even with it this tight because of that shank it's still really easy to move the handle itself. Last bit for the handle is just this little lever that has the little lock release directions on it so we'll pop that on. Final piece of the puzzle for the lever is a little spring that connects it down to the bracket down here. Now this is all attached with this linkage in between this lever can still rotate quite a way because I don't have this bottom section in. That spring to this sector, what that means though is I can hook this spring through here whilst this distance is quite short.

Hook the spring in the bottom here and then flip it over and that spring is now tight that just saves me having to sort put it in and really stretch it. The next thing to do is put this actual stand section in that props the motor up. The first step in this is putting a little nylon bushing on the top. So I'm just going put a little bit of grease under here put the bushing on. Then I'll put a little bit of grease on the bushing as well. You can see here that bushings split at one end so it can just be slipped over the top of this. It's easier if you sort of get it even from one end first and then clip it on. So that's good to go. I'll show you where that bracket attaches underneath, so here's the underside the outboard and if we come in under here on the bracket here there's two bolt holes one here and here. And then there's a channel running this way and a hole going up into there. The first thing I need to do is assemble a spring and little tensioner that it goes up inside this hole before the whole thing gets clamped on with a bracket. So there's a little stainless spring that goes inside that hole and on top of that goes this little nylon bushing. You can see there it's got a little curve on one end then that curve section is what runs on this bracket. The whole thing then in with a little saddle like this. So there's the spring with a little tensioner there. I'm going to put that up inside the hole hold it in place with the bracket put the saddle on get the bolts started. It's a little bit fiddly this part. This part to get this into its bracket, it can't go straight in because it can't pop out so you need to get it at an angle.

So I've got to get it into the outboard before I could then put it up in place. This outboard bracket has grooves inside, so there's a groove for if it's tilted all the way up, some grooves for shallow running and then some grooves for having the motor dropped all the way down. Then you've got this pin here that allows you to set how far the motor is down. When it is in the all the way down position, when you go to put this bracket in the important thing is that there's a little hole on this side. It's not on the other side, this little hole here needs to go to the starboard side the boat so what I'm going do is get this into an angle so I can get it right inside here I'm going put it up on its highest peg. We then need to get that spring and tensioner up in there then saddle on, and button that down up there. What I'll do is I'll push the tensioner I'll hold it all and then what I'll probably do is then take this piece of wood out that's holding the outboard up and let it rest down on this bracket it'll all hold it in position while I do the bolts up. Here's our little spring and tensioner so it goes up inside a hole here with the little groove running east-west then I'll just put the cameras down and I'll lower the outboard onto it.

What we've got there is this bracket up in the top, the outboard now resting on that bracket, the spring and the detention is out of sight now but it's up inside the bracket. It was a bit fiddly but now I've got this saddle over the top. So we've got the spring in the tensioner up inside the outboard here. We've got the bushing around this shaft pressed up against that and then this saddle with a bolt front and back holding the whole thing together. Then we've got the bracket itself just resting in this slot for the fully up position. Before you do any job like this make sure you've got the outboard supported somewhere really safe. Because if ever it drops and you've got your hands in here trying to undo bolts you're probably going to genuinely lose fingers, particularly if it's a larger heavier outboard. Admittedly you tend to use smaller outboards with these sort of manual tilts but I even think a 30hplike this could do some serious damage. So just be really careful when you're working under a bracket like this with the outboard up.

So we've only got two bits to go now, one spring pin and one spring. At the moment nothing stops this lever from rotating all the way around. When it comes all the way around that pressure comes off this spring and just flops off. What happens next is we put the spring pin in this hole here and it becomes a stop that keeps the lever only moving between this sector here between these two protrusions. So I'll move it right around put the spring on put it back and we'll put that spring pin in next. This is the spring pin so it's a pin in the sense that it of a dowel and because it's not completely solid you can see There's an open section along that edge. It's a spring pin because it can compress a little bit and be quite a tight fit. I think they're also called roll pins depending on sort of region you're from. I'm just going put this in with a little hammer and a normal punch but you can actually get spring pin punches which have a center section that fits inside the pin then a wider outside section that goes against it to help you drive it out. I don't have any. Pretty obvious when that pin bottoms out you know it's all the way in. So I'll show you what that pin does. You can see here now that this lever is resting against the pin and if I move the lever over it becomes a stop. So this lever is now limited to that sector in it' travel. Last thing I need to do is put a spring on here that pulls this up and hooks up to the top here. So we're bringing this together which brings this hook mechanism here down so let's pop that on.

You can see here the springs offset so the top of the spring hooks like that and the other ones sideways. So one goes on this way and then the other comes up here. To get the spring up I'm just going use this ubiquitous little sort of spiker I use for lots of stuff. You can get those special hooks that often use for drum brakes and that kind of thing but I can't find mine. Just going pop my glasses on because springs can go flying but all I normally do is get the lever get it onto the top there get it in and then slip it on that way and then just work the spike out. I find that technique works pretty well most of the time. So I'll show you here because this spring is pulling up on this part its pivoting in here so if I drop this down now you'll see it comes down and as it runs over that barb it locks in behind it. Obviously whatever setting I have this rod in is where my deep running trim angle is going to be.

Then I can go in reverse and if I pull the motor up like this it's not going lift up because it's hooked here. This is what this lever does is release this hook. So then if I flip this to the release position it lifts this lever up a little bit and I can lift the motor. The stand inside is what then slots in to any of the grooves for your shallow running position. So what happens as well as that roll pin or that spring pin stopping the lever from going outside that sector the lever itself also pushes against that pin and then pushes that stand inside in or out. I'll show you that. So this stand here slots into these grooves for various shallow water or deep water running positions.

What also affects that is this lever up here if I push the lever down it pushes against this pin that pushes to stand in if I pull the lever up it pushes against here once again and pulls it out so there and if I come down to a shallow position I can then push that lever and pull the way in. It'll then lock in and this will no longer reach right down to the deep running position so it's the lever pushing against the pin up here that moves it in and out. It's also the lever that unlocks this mechanism and then this spring that causes it to lock again so it's sort of the interaction of all those things that help you get the various running positions and locks it down so that it won't flip up when it's in Reverse. I hope that made sense it's a little bit hard to show in there because A) all the bits are black and B) it's all up under the midsection there. But the main point is that it needs some way to keep the stand in and out and that's what the lever going against that spring pin does. it pushes it in pushes it out, the spring pin serves a double purpose is not allowing the lever to go too far to spin right around you've then got that pin that goes through the outboard into the holes that you choose to have your deep running trim set. I will do a video on the effect of moving it in different holes down the track we'll cover that. it'll be the same video if whether you've got power trim tilt or that sort of pin mechanism but that sort of deserves a video in its own right. For this video though the important thing is to understand how that mainspring pulls a hook so that it latches onto that pin and that way when you go in reverse the motor won't just flip up.

So a few problems you see with these mechanisms are it's not locking down so the motor is flipping up when you go in reverse or it's not unlocking so you can't easily lift the motor up or when you lift it up the levers not pushing that little stand in and out so you're not able to change from shallow running to deep running etc. So there are definitely a few things can go wrong obviously this video is for this Mercury 30. It does change a bit between Hondas, Yamaha, Evinrude, whatever. Hopefully though it gives you the basic idea of how these work so if you are having a problem it might help you sort of diagnose what's going on with yours. All right we'll that's it and I'll catch you next week.


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