Evinrude 85 hp trim and tilt

[mgsolakis]

Sorry, I’m a bit confused Jeff. The relays snap in quite snugly. There are only two, housed in a small black box. I opened the box up.

[fleetwin]

OK, that looks to be a 1980 85hp with a later midsection, the trim motor appears to be the two wire unit: (one blue/one green). The junction box is the correct one for the two wire tilt motor with the two relays. Unfortunately, someone had cobbed up the wiring quite badly. That junction box was used on the later model engines and should be mounted on the exhaust cover. Unfortunately, this early engine does not have the mounting holes for that trim relay box, and someone has tried to extend all the leads so the box could be mounted inside the boat….
Here are the pictures:

It should be noted that BOTH relays must be working and in place for this system to work in either direction. In other words, if you pulled out the up relay, the unit won’t work in either direction. If it were mine, I would fashion some sort of bracket so that later style trim relay box can be mounted onto the exhaust cover, then properly shorten and repair the leads.

[mgsolakis]

Thanks Don, and your right there are two wires coming from the trim motor. If these are connected to a battery they work the motor. The wires were all extended when I got the trim and tilt. I actually used this unit with another boat last year mounting the box in the boat near the battery(to bad I can’t remember how it was set up) I’m pretty sure there is a black wire coming from the box that must be a ground. Right now I’ve sent the green and blue wire to the bottom terminal of the solenoid and the black to ground on the motor.

[mgsolakis]

Well thanks for the help everyone and Don ill look into setting that up properly in the cowl, but for now I finally figured it out. It still helped to have some guidance in the troubleshooting. To make a long story short…the solenoids were reversed between the two motors. All I needed to do was send the green and black wires to the top and not the bottom of the solenoid. It was the opposite on the old motor.

[fleetwin]

I’m sorry, I still don’t understand what you mean by "the solenoids were reversed between the two motors"….
Glad you figured it out though, wish I could have helped more.

[mgsolakis]

Sorry tough to explain. I guess you can’t connect the trim to the same post as the starter is connected?

[fleetwin]

I hear ya, pictures are so much better than words, wish I had a better camera, software.
The trim/tilt will not work if you connect it to the same solenoid post that the starter positive is connected to, you could wire it to the "hot side" of the starter solenoid though.
Again, all that is important now is that you found the problem and the system is working before spending a lot of money on new trim relays.

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