Trim gauge not working

[deuce151]

just purchased a 91 maxum 2100SR with the 305 motor in it. its my first boat and Im trying to learn the ropes at this whole boating thing. anyway, took the boat to the lake the other day and noticed that my speedo and trim gauge was not working properly. i think i got the speedo solved, but i dont even know where to start with the trim gauge. the needle on the gauge is stuck in the up position and will occasionally bounce to the full down position and then back up, but it wont give the correct degree of the trim. Where do i go from here?

[seapuppy]

down on the side of the outdrive..there is a small round puck...that is your sensor for the trim gauge angle meter.......pull it apart and I'd be willing to be that theres water there....
you can try and salvage it by cleaning and all..but probably the best bet is to get a new one and install it...there should be one port/stbd.... :D

[deuce151]

found the pucks that you speak of and sure enough, the wiring on the left puck has unraveled and began to fray. I followed the wires from these pucks and it looks like one leads to the trim motor and the other leads to the prop motor. is that right, or did i not follow the wiring correctly? should i replace just the one side, or do they both need to be replace? where can i find a replacement at? do i need to remove the outboard or is there some way to lower it so i can run the new wiring?

also upon further inspection, i noticed that i had a small pool of water in the battery/trim motor area with what appeared to be oil in it. i cleaned it up and checked the fluid in the trim motor and it was white as milk. not good, so somehow water is getting in the system. i checked the outboard drive and couldn't find any leaks. i would assume that if water is getting in there, oil should be able to get out. can i drain the fluid and refill with fresh stuff to get me through the weekend? how do i go about doing this? what type of oil can i use? i know its not a long term solution, but its memorial weekend and ill be at the lake house.


to make my life easier.....where the heck can i find a manual for my I/O?

[seapuppy]

wow..talk about shotgunned.....haha......I'm not sure where the leads go too....what I'd do is call your local maxum store and they can give you a manual for the drive and complete breakdown of the outdrive......if your getting oil into the reservour ..you have a leak in either the trim rams or ...hmmm...don't know where else you can get water into it....what I'd do to get you thru the weekend is to get some automatic transmission fluid..it's the same weight as the 10 weight oil that comes in there and it will also tell you where it's leaking out of....
this is how I'd get it out...do you have an oil bouy??...or a turkey baster???...there is a plug in the front of the plastic reservour....stick the oil bouy small tube down there and give it a pump....
or use a small tube from an auto parts store....and suck it out....like syphoning gas out of a tank.....into a glass jar...
then replace with automatic tranny fluid...

to replace the sensors....cut the wire near the old one and secure the new one to the old one....go inside the boat and find where they penetrate the transom....pull the old wire and the new one should follow....once inside ..you can splice them together on the inside....do it right by soldering and using shrink tubing......attach the new pucks to the drive.. and it should all be good.....

hope this helps but also talk to the service guys...maybe they can repair it for you if your not comfortable doing it.....

[deuce151]

did some research using good ol' google and found that its too much of a hassle to replace the trim sending unit. it did require removing the outer drive and I really dont feel like digging into it all that much. ill just set the trim from the seat of my pants. that method worked fine the other day.

while i was inspecting the the outer drive i noticed the port side hoses that connected to the cylinder were bent, more so than the starboard side. I'm hoping that this is my leak, cause the only other thing that i could think of would be the cylinders. I would much rather shell out $30 for a hose than $400 for a cylinder.

Thanks for the help, ill keep ya updated.

[Flying_Maxum]

I noticed my trim fluid looks like tan milk also. I have no signs of leaks and the drive always stays in position, I find it weird. I had to replace the outer hoses on my last boat and never could get all the air out, you could hear the fluid rushing in the rams filling them up. I am quite nervous about draining these and having the same issue. Is there a trick to bleeding these?

[seapuppy]

I'd suck all the bad oil out of the res...then replace it with fresh..then
I'd try and get someone up on the helm...using a pipe open end wrench..I'd break the fitting loose at the ram...have the person at the helm hit the switch on the dash for the trim...then let the oil bleed out of the ram fitting till clear...it's gonna get messy so toss a rag over the fitting...do this till you have clear fluid coming out...

try that.... :?