FishinBob
01-28-2002, 02:38 PM
Went out sturgeon fishing over the weekend, great fishing but cold. Developed a problem with the outdrive trim indicator. Jumps all over the place when the boat is in the water but works fine on the trailer. Was able to get the trim indicator to act up when the wires from the starboard side of the outdrive trim sensor are touched. Has anybody changed one of these out? Is it easy to adjust for correct limits? If the right side sensor is bad does that mean the left side limit sensor is not far behind?
Pilar
01-28-2002, 03:57 PM
FishinBob, you poor soul. My trim sender did the same thing until I got it fixed. The two senders are changed as a set since they have a common fitting and penetration through the gimbal housing. Here's some things to check. My sender reads different in the water VS. on the trailer. Other than that it works good since I tightened up my gimbal pivot points.
1) Look for problems with the ground side of the trim sender circuit. This can happen anywhere from the gage on the dash to the Gimbal housing plate inside the boat. A bad ground will cause the gage to jump around.
2) Make sure that all of the other wiring in that circuit is connected with no corrosion. Also look for insulation damage on that wiring inside the gimbal housing outside the boat. There are slip together terminals for the trim sender and trim limit switch, standard. I cut off the connectors, soldered, liquid taped and heat shrinked all that wiring when I rebuilt my boat. It was badly corroded and unreliable.
3) Check for sloppy Gimbal pivots before spending the $100 for a new set of trim sender and trim limit switch. If the pins that swivel the outdrive up and down flop around, the trim sender will get damaged. The sender rides on the pivot pin. In really bad cases a floppy pivot pin will actually break off part of the trim sender, rendering it useless. For some reason that starboard side of the gimbal ring wears much worse than the other side.
The gage probably jumped around when the boat was in the water because the outdrive was moving around then. The outdrive is less likely to move around when you're on the trailer. Try grabbing the skeg and shaking the outdrive up and down and side to side and check the gage for a reaction.
The trim limit switch never seems to wear out but you may need to adjust it, especially after you replace the senders.
If you haven't done so, spend $25 on a Seloc manual for your outdrive and motor. Best money you will ever spend. The author Coles, taught at a Mercruiser mechanic school in Southern California for many years and the book is in the like 10th reprinting. He makes anything you have to do simple and uses very clear steps and photos to get you through it. There are ample warnings about what to never do and why.
This book is a real time and money saver.
Good luck and you can E me with specific questions. Please include the year, model and Serial number if you want advise on the wiring.
[ 01-28-2002: Message edited by: Pilar ]</p>