Non-Hatt Question

[chris piazza]

I know this if off the beaten track a little but my neighbor has a small 4-stroke outboard (40 merc) and is having a problem with his trim-n-tilt. A while back he hit a log while on plane in his tender, since this the motor will not stay up. Example, if he gets the boat on plane, trims the motor out it doesn’t stay there. If the boat is out of the water and the motor trimmed all the way up you can push on it (not very hard) and it will slowly go down. The ram appears to be okay and there are no external leaks. My thought was there is some type of internal pressure relief that did its job when he hit the log but somehow now is not holding the pressure it should. Any thoughts?

Chris
Superior Nights 53c

 

[67hat34c]

try bleading the hydraulic system. sounds like it got air in it some how.

 

[Avenger]

Most of these units have a manual release valve that allows you to vent the hydraulic pressure to put the motor down in the event of a system failure. It's usually a slotted screw that you reach through the side of the mounting bracket. Just make sure it's screwed in all the way.

We just replaced a tilt assy in my friends 175. It had a similar problem. Never found out exactly what it was unfortunately, but it wasn't air or an open bypass valve. My friend didn't have the patience to take it apart, and the brilliant advice we got from the Merc dealer was: "they either work or they don't." So my friend just threw money at the problem. Sorry I don't have a better answer, but if you do end up having to pull the assembly out, I was able to get it out of the 175 by unbolting one side of the bracket from the transom and swinging it up, instead of taking the whole bracket apart.