Drive Trim Indicator displays on SmartCraft is choppy water

[Morpheus]

Ok over the weekend there was some decent chop and coming back on plain I noticed the smart craft display kept showing the Trim Indicator which was 0 through the chop.

Is this normal or is there something wrong with my drive where it's moving around and causing the Trim to display. At one point it appeared stuck so I trimmed up and back down and it went away.

 

[Lazy Daze]

I'm not fully understanding what you're asking.

But, look on either side of your drive, by the gimbal housing. There are two, round, plastic pieces - each with two phillip's head screws in them. They are each about 2" or 3" in diameter. One says "trim limit" and the other says "trim sender". The sender sends your drive position to the gauge. See if it's loose.

 

[Morpheus]

I'll look next time it's out of the water.

But basically what I'm saying is normally on plain is good water and at min wake and no wake speeds the smarter craft display only shows the trim position when I'm trimming up or down and then goes back to whatever was being displayed which for me is usually water depth.

But this particular time out in choppy conditions riding along on plane with the water depth showing it would ever couple of minutes show the trim position as if I was adjusting it but wouldn't move off of 0 position. As if the drive was moving around in the chop but not enough to change from 0 to anything higher.

From what your saying though if the sender is maybe a little lose this could happen. My concern was should the drive be moving at all that would cause the sender to send the movement to the smart craft display?

 

[Lazy Daze]

OK, I understand better, now. No, the drive shouldn't be moving... and it would be EXTREMELY weird if it was. Is your power trim fluid bottle full (not the gear lube bottle)?

 

[chuck1]

Have you checked your fluid level? You indicator will come on if your drive moves and if your fluid gets even a bit low the drive will "Bonce/Move" ever so slightly and make you indicator come on.
Even with me checking the fluid before each use, I've had it happen once or twice, added just a bit of fluid and problem solved. When I had checked it is was just above the save low mark. Now I always try to keep it at the max full mark and don't have the problem any more.

 

[Morpheus]

That was the first thing I looked at and it appeared to be full (heck it should be the boat was just serviced a couple weeks ago) but they put it all the way in the corner so I need to climb back there (if I fit) to really get a good look at it and see if I need to add any. I may have MM deal with it since they still can't seem to get the PITOT sensor to work correctly but it's good info to know so if it happens in the future I know what to look for.

 

[chuck1]

If they just serviced it you may have to run it up and down a couple times to get any air out of the system. I've found on mine that if it is not at max full you'll get the problem your talking about on the smart craft.

 

[wastinaweigh]

Morpheus,

Take a look at your smartcraft manual. One of the settings is called "Trim Popup" or something similar and it sounds like yours is set to "On". Turn it off and it should fix your problem.

I think that the outdrive moves just enough in a chop to trigger the momentary display of the trim setting if it is turned on.

 

[Henry Boyd]

I'm not fully understanding what you're asking.

But, look on either side of your drive, by the gimbal housing. There are two, round, plastic pieces - each with two phillip's head screws in them. They are each about 2" or 3" in diameter. One says "trim limit" and the other says "trim sender". The sender sends your drive position to the gauge. See if it's loose.

Dennis,

I thought the port side sender was the only part that functions on a Smartcraft setup and that he starboard 'sender' was a dummy.

Henry

 

[Morpheus]

Morpheus,

Take a look at your smartcraft manual. One of the settings is called "Trim Popup" or something similar and it sounds like yours is set to "On". Turn it off and it should fix your problem.

I think that the outdrive moves just enough in a chop to trigger the momentary display of the trim setting if it is turned on.

I'm not trying to turn that off I was wondering why it kept displaying when I was not trimming the drive.

Dennis,

I thought the port side sender was the only part that functions on a Smartcraft setup and that he starboard 'sender' was a dummy.

Henry

One side is a sender the other side is a limiter.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Actually, both sides of the engine are still functional, but the adjustment is a little more complex than the old style -- need some special equipment.

I had to talk to one of my techs about something, so I chewed his ear for a few minutes about this problem. He suggested two things, both relatively easy to do. First, do a trim re-cal (calibrate). Get into your Smartcraft "reset" menu (DON"T DO A MASTER RESET) and go to "trim re-cal". Follow the directions.

The other thing is to unplug the wire from the back of the trim gauge and re-attach it. It's sort of like turning a computer off and then back on.