Good find Bradford. Hopefully this unit I bought will work as advertised.

Me personally I think if you here the motor running but it's not raising the engine sounds like air is in the system I would check all the possibilitys

Step, I agree on checking all possibilities. I spent almost $100 and worked for around 6 hours over a period of 2 - 3 days trying to bleed air out of the system. I had it moving up and down smoothly while not under load and moving up very slowly under load, then it would very quickly leak back down. My downfall was actually getting too much fluid in the reservior which lead to causing the reservior to crack and spew fliud across the shop. A new reservior is $160 ish. Had I not blown the reservior I'd still be working on it. My time and frustration is worth something too..... and those fish aren't going to patiently wait while I fiddle around in the shop pretending to know what I'm doing.

If you are interested I'll sell you my non working unit at a discounted price. If you can get it working good it is worth anywhere between 700 - 1000 on the market. Or you could part it out for even more $$. Like I said it now needs a new reservior (made of cheap plastic). Cosmetically it is a 9 out of 10. It may just need a new manual release valve screw. You can buy a new one for $120 ish and "try" that. You could also buy all new seals and replace them too (if you can get by without wringing bolts off). Anyone else interested in it. Make offer.

I also have a 14.25 x 17 RH stainless prop in like new condition that needs a new hub pressed in. Make offer.

Sounds like the seal on the tilt ram was torn. If it would move without load, but slowly with a load and rapidly leak down, then the only answer was a torn tilt ram seal. It was simply bypassing the fluid internally around the seal and bleeding back off to the reservoir. I found a few on EBAY for $400, but prices range all over the board on those. Also thta looks like the fastrac system, and IIRC they had problems with the drive coupler breaking in the YAMAHA version.

One day these outboard engine and parts manufacturer's will pay for their crimes.

Sometimes I wonder about how much simpler things used to be when everything over 16 feet ran a straight inboard.

Got the tilt unit today. If it works as good as it looks I'm in good shape. :sly:

I'll put it on tomorrow and if the rain lets up head to the lake Sunday to test the new prop.

Hit the lake late evening, dreary, drizzly, conditions. Saw 1 other boat. Water low, able to slide under the bridges that normally restrict me. Saw 1 other boat all evening. Fun solo cruise. New Solas 14.25 x 17 prop is perfect. Wasn't sure at first b/c my Garmin would not acquire satellites (had to perform an auto-locate), but once it did I could tell this prop is as good as and probably a touch better than the old prop. I hit 5300 rmps 42 mph without trimming to full capacity. Old prop was a struggle to get much over 5100.

Oh yeah, and the tilt/trim unit works great! Now I'm just waiting for that Saturday/Sunday weather window to get out and pound the bottom critters off the coast.

Good to hear Blue. I have the same prop on my 150 and like it a lot and get about the same numbers.

Who's ready for round 2 of money burning!?!?

As reported, replacement tilt/trim installed, functioning, test driven with no issues. Then in the shop I notice fluid puddling....uh oh. Blew it off that it might have been from the original unit so I cleaned it up in the morning. That afternoon had another puddle. WTF. Looks like fluid leaking around the trim motor housing? Upon further inspection of the 3 bolts that you can access, 2 aren't even hand tight, the third is backed out 1/8 inch. Tried to tighten one and it won't tighten even slightly (stripped!). Took the other one out to find it was only 1/2 a bolt with epoxy on the end of it - NICE!

Emailed my eBay guy, he says no problem ship it back to me, so this one is going back tomorrow afternoon. Hope I don't have to pay the 2x shipping but better than being out of $740 smackers all together.

Anyway, always heard 3rd time is the charm, so fingers crossed.

p.s. Got me thinking even harder about getting a new 2015 150 4 stroke ~$11,500 on Boats.net. BUT, I need a new(er) truck and buy my youngest daughter a car and my oldest daughter just started 1st year of college, yada yada yada.... Maybe next year, we'll see....got to get this one fixed either way.

I can help you out with a car, selling my wifes G6 because her mom gave her there old CR-V. She likes the CR-V better, so the G6 has to go. Needs a good cleaning, but still a really nice car for the age.