Can't get it up!

Now that I've got your attention.

Went out to start my boats the other day because they have been sitting for 3 weeks. Got the Skipjack uncovered and the muffs on, lowered the volvo drive and started her up. Ran like a champ. Shut her down and tried to raise the drive and nothing. Just the click click of the relay. It's a hydraulic system and it has not given me any trouble since I bought the boat 3 months ago. There is a small seepage in one of the cylinders however. The hydraulic pump is getting power but it does not turn. Does anybody know if the reservoirs have a float switch that cuts the motor if the level drops below a certain level? My volvo manual does not have anything on hydraulic tilt/trim. (it's a Clymer) Short of pulling out the hyd. motor, I don't know what to do next.

On to my V20. Lowered the OMC 800 drive, put the muffs on and started her up. Purred like a very large kitten. Came time to raise up the drive and nothing! Just the click click of the relay. This one's an electro mechanical tilt system. New motor, new solenoid and recently serviced clutch. Motor is getting current because there is a voltage drop when energized. Acts like it is just stuck. Anybody know how to raise these without power? It's a worm gear drive so I don't know how to move the gear from the moment side.

Pretty bad day at the BOM dockside. I would try Viagra but just don't know where to put it in. Gas tank? Carb? Hydraulic Reservoir?
Maybe I should just take it myself and see what happens?

Thanks in advance,

BassOMaticII
laying limp in the driveway!

[willy]

Brother that is a very sad image, feel for ya. Have not had to work on any I/O's yet sorry. Just wanted to comiserate :-/

[Airslot]

There is usually 2 relays, one for up and one for down. They get corroded annualy on several rigs I've seen. Try swapping the relays and see if your problem goes with them. Many times just removing and plugging back in the relay cleans it up enough to work. Thats the easiest and cheapest place to start chiasing this problem.

Airslot

[macojoe]

On the volvo I second the relay and or corrosion, check all well. also make sure that the oil level is up there, you say there is some seepage there and it may be low??
There is no float of any kind that I am aware of??


As for the V20, same thing as far as the oil level goes, try to add some oil. Check all wires for corrosion, loose connections and so on.

do the motors run and the drive not move?? Not picking on you, but I had a friend that had his motor locked and was tring to move the motor.
Called me I went there and he tryed it, I said maybe if you move the lock it would work, and it dids!!
We still laugh today!!

Thanks for the thoughts.

Neither motor runs. I have jumpered across the relays on both drives with no result.

The indicator on the Volvo says 2 percent. The full down position is -4 %. Drive will not go either direction. The odd thing is that it just quit. No sputter, slow down or other anomally. Leads me to believe that it is an electical problem. That's why I inquired about the float switch.

The OMC hit the stops fairly hard when being lowered. I usually bump it down slowly but my finger held it too long for the last few degrees. I suspect that something is mechanically bound. I really don't want to remove the tilt motor. It's a nasty job. Was hoping that someone would know how to raise the drive manually.

Gotta get one of them up and running before the local halibut derby on 4/1.

Thanks again

BassOMaticII

[macojoe]

aske your question here, they helped me alot!!

http://forums.iboats.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi

I took my trim motor out last winter to paint it, as it was all rusted. Came out real good and wasn't all that hard to do.

[Crusher]

BassOMaticII, here is two more sites.www.themarinedoctor.com and www.marineengine .com do a search on the last one and youll probely find threads on your problem. Crusher

Finally got it up!

Update on the tilt problems.

Volvo (hydraulic) tilt:
Turned out to be a bad fuse! Very strange problem though. The fuse has a hairline crack, probably a stress fracture from vibration. The fuse would pass voltage through but not current. I could consistantly measure voltage on the supply side of the relay until the pump was actuated. I checked the voltage on the load side of the relay with the pump connected and it was zero. I measured voltage when the pump was disconnected. I jumpered the relay with a wire and had the same result. I traced the wire to a very strange looking Volvo 55A fuse on the power side of the starter. I removed the fuse and measured the continuity and came up with 2.2K ohms. I put my battery booster directly on the hydraulic pump and it worked in both directions. Replaced the fuse with a new one and all is well. Very odd for a fuse to act that way. It was a lot of head scratching and supposing but for the cost of a fuse, I'm back in the water.

OMC (electro mechanical) drive.
Removed the large moment gear on the back of the drive. The drive lifted manually with little effort. Checked the tilt motor with the gear off and it worked fine. The clutch worked and the drive gear rotated normally in both directions. Put the moment gear back on the drive and everything is back to normal. I suspect that the drive was just jammed in the down position. As I had stated before, when I lowered the drive, my finger did not release the switch quickly enough and the drive hit the home stop quite hard. It is a good practice with the OMC drive to just bump the switch until the drive is home. I'll have to be more careful in the future.

It was a little frustrating to have both boats down at the same time but in the end all it took was a little troubleshooting and a fuse to get back in the water again. If all boat problems were that simple to fix we could log a lot more hours on our boats.

Thanks to all who replied. This is a great resource!

Bass O Matic II
Crusin again

[macojoe]

Glad you got it all set!!~