SOLVED after seven years: Outdrive trim works at idle, but not when on plane

Michael T

IMO there is no problem with trim rams lifting a boat underway - I have done that, what 10,000 times? There is a lot give to water until about 50 mph and even then trim tabs work fine. Good news @LaRea

reneechris14

you have a man date!!!

davidbrooks

Did they give you info on how to verify if it was the rpm limiter or how to adjust it? Just still dont get how it followed the pump to the new motor.

LaRea

YYZRC said:

Not sure if you feel like a swim, but I've adjusted mine in water very easily.  ...

@YYZRC thanks ... I tried and failed, but I think I know what to try next. 

On the misbehaving port drive, VV reads 54% when trimmed down, so I need to adjust it to 0% like the starboard drive.  If I rotate the puck clockwise, the reading will go up from 54% up to 90%, so I need to rotate it counter-clockwise.  But I can't because it's already at the end of its travel.  

I think this means the puck is not correctly aligned to the drive.  The puck has a star-shaped gear that slides into splines on the drive.  I need to pull the puck out from the splines, rotate it clockwise, and push it back in.  I'll try this tomorrow morning.  

BTW for digital senders, there's a 3-wire puck on the port side and a blank cap on the starboard side.

aero3113

@LaRea , that’s what you need to do. 

reneechris14

Yup X2 I had to do this to get my gauge to read correct. Kinda of funny this took 7 years lol, well if this is the fix.

LaRea

The digital senders were installed in 2016, so this particular problem couldn't have existed before then.  But I never suspected the trim sender because it works fine at idle.  Man, I hope this is the solution.

YYZRC

You’ve got this @LaRea !!

Ian

The installation notes for the analog ones indicate the process to align index marks with a full down position so sounds like this wasn’t done right when installed.

Lake_Bum

Sounds like you're close to finding the problem!  A celebratory cruise will be awesome for you. 

LaRea

Well cut my legs off and call me Shorty.  Problem solved.  

LaRea

I can't explain why the problem changed sides when I swapped trim pumps.  It's either bad record-keeping on my part, or some other issue.  I don't care ... this is a solved problem.  Yessssss!

aero3113

Nice!!

LaRea

When I paid my guy to install the senders rather than doing it myself, I missed out on a chance to learn about them.  Maybe I'd have understood this problem sooner.  

Spyderweb

That is great news!  I love a story with a happy ending.