intermittent trim problem

[wingtime]

Took the boat out in the lake today to test the steering and the new Lowrance HDS.  Everything worked great.  Then all of a sudden my motor trim stopped working...  hmmm   up and down didn't work.  I fiddled with the switch nothing...  I changed throttle position and it started working again.     Seemed ok,..  then after changing throttle... it quit again...  hmmm.  Seemed that moving the throttle caused a intermittent problem with the trim...  no up or down.  When I made it back to the ramp I played with it a bit with the motor shut down.  sure enough if I moved the throttle around I could get the trim to quit or work...  when it quits  nothing works up or down.  I'm guessing there is a broken positive wire somewhere in the binnacle.  Anyone run into this before?   I really don't feel like digging into that binnacle! dang it!  Of course when we were pulling the wires for the transducer we may have upset something.

[RickK]

Bummer - been there, just got through it. Hopefully your repair will be cheaper than mine.
Sounds like you've got an idea where to look - definitely sounds like a loose or broken wire.

[GoneFission]

Most likely the trim switch.  Turn off the battery to the engine, squirt some WD-40 around the switch, and exercise it back and forth a bit.  Usually it's some corrosion on the switch contacts or water in there.  Most times the fix above works - but you can take the switch apart and fix it if you need to...

Good luck!

[seabob4]

Bruce,
The red (power), green (down), and blue (up) wires run around the throttle lever base inside the binnacle on their way up to the handle.  Easy to get at on a single OMC top mount, just remove the 4 screws holding the cover on, swing it up and out of the way, you'll see the wiring.  Since both up and down don't work, it's the red power wire that has a break in it...

[wingtime]

Bruce, Since both up and down don't work, it's the red power wire that has a break in it...

That is what my feeling was.

[dburr]

I had corrosion on the bullet connectors on a 704 Yam binicle that stopped the trim and ignition (#€£¥!! Neutral safety switch). I took stuff apart to reroute wires and when it went back together nothing worked.  So it all came apart again and got cleaned and things worked fine after.. Lesson learned was when I used the meter to check for continuity and voltage, I touched the tip of the bullets and jammed the tester lead on the outside of the female to free up my hands. Stuff looked clean and I saw good voltage and continuity, however when it all went back together nothing worked.. After some head scratching I figured out that the sides of the bullets needed to be shined up some more..  

[wingtime]

Just a follow up on this thread.  We pulled apart the binnacle and as i suspected the red wire was broken right where the pivot point is for the lever.  A quick splice and I'm good to go.