engine tilt playing up

[malby]

Hi all,

I have an 03 90 merc 3 cylinder and the tilt was playing up a bit the other day. It would not go up sometimes.

My mate mentioned the solonoid.

I am guessing that this is a part of the tilt engine which seems quite tucked away under the engine.

Any thoughts on what I should do and where to start?

Thanks, Mal
7682776826

[Gon Fishun]

Yep, start with ALL the electricals connected to trim. Solenoids, terminals etc. Have been down the same road and thought it was the trim motor but it lent more to dirty connectors and terminals.

[Fed]

Could be a couple of relays under the engine cowl malby.
Surprised you haven't grabbed your free genuine manual yet.
http://rapidshare.com/files/213240343/75-90-100-115-125.rar
Every rar file needs a password "ribforum"

[malby]

Thanks Fed. I went into your link and it was a thing called rapid share?? I'm not understanding??? Is this some special program? Is it somehow related to a manual for the engine? Sorry I am not even close to a computer geek. Thanks, Mal

[johncar]

Without knowing the Merc setup many Outboards have a pair of small relays (up relay and down relay) often little black boxes about an inch square that plug into a couple sockets. Mostly under the top of the cowl somewhere. The little contacts on them just get burnt out and resistive after 100's of operations.
assuming that it has that setup and with the age of your motor it would be worth replacing both of them anyway and keep the old ones in your toolbox for emergency spares. They should be identical relays so can be substitued into the alternate sockets which I have had to do more than once to get the motor up or down out at sea. I got into the habit of always carrying at least one new spare relay with my OMC's. So I will have to check my current Suzi now you mention it.

[malby]

That makes sense as its just the up button that is playing up and then only at certain points on the up-swing

[Fed]

For some reason ausfish condensed the link and it doesn't work, I downloaded and unzipped the file so if you want the manual PM me with your email address and I'll send it to you as an attachment.
You do have relays under your cowl, if you also have a cowl switch they are prone to failure too.
When you open the directory double click on the cover.pdf file to bring up the active menu to select which section you want, you should choose wiring diagrams in section 2 part D.

[trueblue]

my yamaha one played up recently and it was the switch on the throttle. easy repair once identified

[hard2catch]

I had this same problem on the same engine last year.I've sold the boat the engine was on but from memory there are two solenoids just below the startor motor(you can see the wires from the trim switch on the engine going into them).Get a small length of hose and put it against each solenoid with the other end to your ear,operate the trim switch and you should hear the faulty one make a faint clicking sound.They are easy to replace and original merc solenoids aren't too expensive.I have a feeling the solenoid to trim the motor up is the one closest to the transom.Hope this helps.