Trim pump

Handsome Transom

Active Member
Jan 26, 2018
563
Penetanguishene Ontario Canada
Boat Info
1989 SeaRay Sundancer 268 454 Bravo
Engines
454 Mercruiser bravo drive
While underway I tried to adjust my trim angle at cruising speed and the pump would not engage up or down. I was able to trim up and down by running power direct from battery to the hot terminals of the solenoids.Also trailer switch was functional My question is . Is it most likely a fuse issue the 110 amp that I've read of or is it a switch issue at the control. There is an audible click with the switch at the throttle engaged so that leads me to think 110 amp fuse unsure of its location. Or both solenoids failed simultaneous?
1989 268 Da 7.4L Bravo 1 drive.
 
Have the same problem, the clear hose came off the pump and ran out of oil I refilled after replacing the hose. I was trying to lower the outdrive but now the switch has no power and wont raise or lower the outdrive.
 
To follow up , miy problem was a faulty solenoid, . The funny thing is that it turned out only one had failed though at the time of failing I swore it would not raise or lower.and I had purchased 2 to replace.
Test for power going to the solenoids there is also an inline fuse near the pump. Its ten a rubber boot, I once had that connection come apart and lost up and down which was a freebie fix just connected it again and was good to go
 
Will check that out along with all the fittings as they could of gotten oil on them when the hose went and when I was refillling the pump. I could of also over extended the trim limit and the switch will shut power off to the pump to protect the outdrive from over extending. I need to find the the wire for the down operation and jump it to power to lower the unit to eliminate the trim limit switchs power over the outdrive. I will look for that fuse in the rubber boot and the connection.
 
power starts at the main buss connecting the 2 solenoids, also the power for the trim switch
simply jumping the 2 large lugs will determine if the 90 or 110 is blown. by jumping the 2 large lugs and the motor does not run the 110 A fuse is bad, motor is bad or the main ground lead is broken/missing/corroded

jumping from a good 12v to the small lugs on the solenoid , it should operate the solenoid and motor.
 
Thats the wrong system, mine is a single solenoid setup with the pump having a screw fill hole and a vent screw. The boat is a 77 model Sundancer 240 with twins 470s and pre alpha mr outdrives. I just need to get the outdrive to go back down but now the switch is inopertive because I believe the outdrive is past the trim limit and the trim switch has shut off the power to the pump from the switch. So how can I bypass that and get the out drive down? The out drive will go up if jumped at the solenoid.
 
click to enlarge
 

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Thanks I will give that a shot. I remember when I replaced the other switch when I first got the boat that I was able to cross the hot lead with blue wire to move the outdrive. Will get on it today and post results. This old boat seems to have one issue after another. I also have a choke not working on the port engine I may have lost power to the thermastat because it was working fine after the carb rebuild. Next project.
 
Remember, the only thing that always works on an old boat................

Is the owner!!
 
Well tried at the switch have power there and no good and still looking for the fuses but tried to jump across the solenoid no response now where it did before on the up circuit. I could of killed the solenoid so ordered another one. Have power at the pos post on the solenoid. I lowered the outdrive by releasing hydralic pressuer and will try later, too warm working in the sun. Is there a way to jump 12 volt direct to the pump to make sure it is good? This is a great looking boat but it doesn't want to go back in the water.
 
I checked the pump assembly and there is no 90 amp fuse and no circuit breaker, I did see where there is a hose clamp on the plugin so I will undo that and see if I can make it have a better connection looks like because of the clamp there has been an issue there in the past. There is some real south of the border wiring on this boat among other things. There is power to the solenoid but nothing coming out even if you jump across the terminals hopefully I didn't kill the pump when I was trying to lower it. Any other ideas Doc, haven't figured out how to jump the blue and green wires at the pump yet. Released the hydrolic pressure of the outdrive to lower it to eliminate the trim switch issue but that didn't help, dash switch has power but still dead at the buttons, can't even get any activity by crossing wires with a battery lead. Totally confused at the moment.
 
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If you are putting 12v directly to the blue / green wires then the pump should work - check the ground!
 
If you are putting 12v directly to the blue / green wires then the pump should work - check the ground!
People tend to forget about the ground connection.

Working on a car, many items are grounded simply by being bolted to the chassis. With the fiberglass “chassis” in a boat, each accessory not attached to he engine has/needs a dedicated ground wire.
 
Well changed the solenoid but no improvement, have power at the main terminal and looked to see if I could find a fuse but so far can't see one any idea where it may be? Will double check all the grounds later the heat drove me inside. I think I will hook a ground direct to see if that helps. Also could the trim switch at the outdrive cause this thing not to work? I replaced them when I was working on the outdrives but they were Chinese made jobs so who knows their life span. Boat has only been in the water once for three weeks at a slip and setting outside the house for a year. I ran the engines the other day to warm up and shifted them and let them warm up to temp all is well there but the port side trim stopped working after I ran them up and down but was low on fluid so I added some and it blew the hose thats when all went to heck and stopped working when I manually ran it all the way up. What baffles me is I have power at the red on the switch and power at the solenoid so it should work it has to be a ground issue!! I swear I get this squared away I'm going to take her for a ride to make sure the overheating issue is fixed and then sell her. Oh the pump did work when I manually ran her up.
 
Will be working on the ground connections tomorrow and taking all the connections apart and clean them. If that doesn't work will go to the trim puck and I think I still have a good old one. Ordering new you have to get both pucks. Next move is new three button switch and cable off Ebay.
 
Putting hot direct to blue wire it goes up and direct to green goes down so the pump is working and changed out the solenoid so must be either the switch or a break in the cable. Have new plastic hose for the pump so going to change that out as soon as I get modivated. Hard to work on tracking down a loose of power by yourself, thinking of just ordering another switch assembly off Ebay to eliminate that issue. The only button works on this one is the down. What wire combo does out, need to bring the outdrive out to get at the trim puck to check it out? It is all the way in right now. Have cleaned all the ground connections and puck connections.
 

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