Trim Sending units

rasbury

OK- storm is passed and time to get back to work on my boat from the bellows replacement. Before life hit the fan, including a little storm on 9/11 here in Florida, I got my outdrive back on but have run into issues with my trim sensors.

While I did remove the pivot pins and re install and understand they are not exactly in the same place they came out of, everything should work I would think although I would expect them to be off.

I had the drive down when I took the sensors off, and the drive down when I attempted to put them back on. The gauge is pegged to full up. I did not play with the sensors like to turn them to change the settings from where they came off.

I installed the trim limit sensor first and followed the instruction with the manual- I lined up the little lines on the wheel with the sensor body and installed per the instruction. It should have hit limit way before where I would want it but it went all the way up to I assume the trailer position.

So, I proceeded to the position sensor to see if I got anything out of that one, followed the book and the gauge does not move and is pegged up. Even though I know I did not move the part that turns inside the sensor, I played with it now to see if it was off somehow and turning made no difference to the gauge.

What happened on this? While for the most part for trimming while running I don't really use the gauge anyway and go by sound. I'm more concerned about some of the shallow water I get into and don't want to trim it up to high and lose my water pick up and water pump!

Trashman

https://www.ravnsgarage.no/content/mma/publish/01/108/10887/Trim+sender+og+limit+justering+Alpha.pdf

Trashman

Marking them doesn't necessarily guaranty proper adj.   the drive itself needs to be in the same position from when you marked them.   I sent a link on how to install and adjust them.   Helpful if you have a person in the boat looking at gauge when you are adjusting.  Good luck. 

davidbrooks

@rasbury i had issues with one of my senders also.  I put in brand spanking new ones as one of the transom assemblies had digital ones.  Same thing as you.  It was pegged up.  So what i discovered is that it is basically just a simple rheostat.  if you take the sender off the right side of the outdrive you can take it apart.  There are 4 screws.  When you take the cover off it exposes a white plastic plate. that has two sections of plastic and two metal sections.  In my case the brand new one the plastic plate was all broken.  One way to test the wires is to jump across the two wires at the sender with power to the motor.  The gauge wont move without power.   I swapped out the plastic piece and then lined up the metal sections so that they were making contact with the brushes.  This let me get some movement on the gauge.  On both of my senders i started out with them centered but ended up almost completely adjusted to one side as the final adjustment.  

rasbury

Thanks all -I did do it per the book and got no control from the limit side and no input n the gauge for the position side....wii look into what David suggests..will have to study on that a bit...

rasbury

Just don't understand what happened to them from the time I took them off to putting them back on- worked fine...

Trashman

ras   be sure you didnt get them mixed up    maybe thats the issue   

rasbury

Good point...they were still attached to other stuff so would not have happened...bud good point!

Trashman

I remember when I had mine apart I eyeballed the drive being level and adjusted the trim sender puck till my son said the needle was in center of gauge.   I then had him hit the drive up a little at  a time till needle was at the high mark then turned the trim LIMIT puck till it prevented the drive being powered up any further. Kind of crude but my trim was on point.   

rasbury

I'm just not getting anything out of them at this point....

Michael T

.....popped a fuse, ground?

rasbury

I have mot gotten far enough to see if there is a fuse- I checked the breakers by the helm- with Irma coming to visit I just ran out of time. Will get it back home after the weekend and look it over....

Michael T

Ras, I should have said breaker. I do not know of fuse other than the breaker. I have had friends have ground trouble with trim sensors.

rasbury

The puzzle is they worked fine before I pulled the drive...I'll get it back home soon...sure did lose some boating time!

davidbrooks

There is no fuse between the sending unit and guage.  Really it is as simple a piece of electronics as you will ever find.  Use your ohm meter to test and make sure the wire didn't break going through the transom assembly.  Then just test by jumping the contacts inside the unit itself.  If you jump it you should see the guage move.  I guarantee once you take it apart and look at it.  It will all make sense what is going on.

rasbury

where am I testing with the meter....on the gauge itself or on the sending unit on the out drive? IF the gauge on the dash is not moving I can only assume power is being interrupted by something....It will probably be a week before I get it home again...sigh....

davidbrooks

Yep. Undo bullet plugs inside to the engine. Those wires go through to sending unit. Then unscrew cover on sending unit. The two wires should be able to get a solid reading or it got pinched going back in.  You will also see what I mean about the sender being a simple rheostat.

rasbury

so there is a connection at the transom you unplug from either side of the transom? Maybe I just got it pulled loose? I need to look at the manual...I am not much on electrical- your first post was checking for power at the sender- I thought I was checking for power at the wires going to the sender? Ugh!- getting confused...

Cableguy Greg

At the back of the engine, just above the transom plate, there is a connection for the trim sender pucks.

davidbrooks

Sorry @rasbury.  Trim sender goes on right side of outdrive. It has two wires that go through the outdrive.  Trim Limit goes on left side of outdrive it has two wires.  Both sets of wires have bullet connectors.  One set of wires get plugged into matching bullet connectors on the engine and one set get plugged into bullet connectors that are part of the wiring harness that goes to the trim pump.  The first test i would do is to make sure the wires are good.  I am going to assume your gauge and wires to the gauge didn't go bad while you were working on the outdrive so i recommend you start at the rear of the boat and go forward.  So if you open up one of the units by taking out the screws you can get to one end.  Then just test that the wire is good to the bullet connector.  I would then hook it all back up and that if you cross the two terminals on the trim limit that it makes the gauge move.  If you put the white disk in you can see the sections of it that have the resistor (metal piece) you can move it slowly and have someone in the cabin to watch the gauge.  It really is best done with two people.   You can get it to a point where it is making the gauge move and then reassemble.  

rasbury

Ok- looked at the book- so the first test disconnected is just checking continuity on the wires to make sure there is no break. And we are talking about the trim limit switch first apparently. And then you suggest to jump the terminals at the trim limit, but that sensor is not going to register at the gauge is it/ would that not be the other sensor?

davidbrooks

I would jump the trim sender (right side) and see what it does to the gauge.   Jumping Trim limit wont affect gauge.

rasbury

@davidbrooks ok, I jumped over the outdrive and tripped and fell...jk, you have to talk to me like I'm a 4 year old. I follow instructions well! So, where do I jump these wires? Do I need to be operating the trim during this test? On the gauge sensor, some of the sheathing has come off and the wires are bare- can I jump there and hit the trim?

davidbrooks

@rasbury on the trim sender (right side).  Remove the two screws holding it on.  Then remove the 4 screws holding it together.  When you take the outer facing piece of plastic off you will see a white flat piece of plastic.  This can be carefully pulled out with fingers only.  This is the important  part.  It is a rheostat.  So underneath of that you will see two wires going into brushes.  The brushes make contact with the white disk.  The disk has two squares on the underneath that are metal.  These metal squares touch the brushes and as it rotates it increases the amount of electricity it allows to go to the guage thus moving the indicator.  So in order to test what you do is with the white piece of plastic out.  have someone sit in the captains seat and turn on the ignigtion.  Not start the motor.  Just turn it on.  Then you take a screw driver and jump the two wires that are connected to the brushes.  You will see an easy place there to do it.  You should see the gauge move.  That will tell you that the wiring is good, connections are good. You just didn't get the sender on right.  If it doesn't move then you have a wiring issue or gauge issue.  Like @Trashman said.  Next step is to make sure they aren't mixed up.  So ohm meter out take one conector to the brush and then on engine pull the bullet plugs to it and make sure that set of wires are going to the engine.  IF the gauge did move.  Which is what happened to me.  I put the trim sender back together being careful to have the metal sections touching the brushes and then put it back on the outdrive so it was centered.  Had someone turn the engine on again and rotate the trim sender unit to see if the gauge moved now.  For me the problem was the brand new sender i bought had a crushed inside.  The white plastic disk was in pieces.  Swapped the disk with an old one.  Aligned it and ta da, gauges work. 

rasbury

ah, you have me thinking...I had the sender sitting there and turned the drive left and right to put the pivot pins back in and I know I put a crunch on them.....dang it, my own worse enemy. I will get the boat home and give this a try..as far as your second test, not sure that my ohm meter wires are long enough to reach from the bullet connector inside the transom all the way out to the sensor? I will get through the first test and  if that passes, will re post. Thanks so much for the help, great thing about this forum is everyone knows a lot about a little, me I don't know much about nothing so the help is really appreciated!

aero3113

@rasbury , maybe your meter probe/wires can fit through the drain hole? If not you can make long jumper wires with alligator clips on each end.

davidbrooks

@rasbury just take a section of wire and use it as a jumper.  I normally take a small vise grip and pinch it on what ever i am testing.

rasbury

I do have wires with clips..get it home this week and check it out...it'll be 3 weeks before the ramps open back up in sure- I want to be ready!