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Squealing power trim and extremely slow trimming down

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Georgiaboy67

Advanced Contributor
i have a 97 evinrude 115. E115eleua, the motor squeals extremely bad when it's being trimmed up. It only does this when it's cold out. When it gets warm it never squeals. It's sounds like nails on a chalkboard. Why is this only happening when it's cold? The whole power trim is original. I filled it with fluid too. Also trimming down, the motor is barely moving down, it now takes forever for the motor to trim down all the way. It trims up faster on the hydraulics then going down. Also a couple weeks aho I had it trimmed up high as it could go, but when I went to trim down the trim motor was running the outboard didn't move.. Help please!!!
 
Trim it all the way up and check the fluid level. Then cycle it 5 times up and down. The fittings for it are on the swivel bracket. Look closer.
 
What ever it is my trim and tilt issue has gotten worse.. now when I'm idling and I trim the engine down the engine jerks the entire boat, like it's not lubricated, and even worse then that today Nature called and I had to tilt the engine up 100% to get onto the bank and when I got back the engine was stuck. The trim motor was running and both up and down button were working and sounding the trim motor but the engine wasn't moving. After 25 minutes of playing with it in 20 mph winds and heavy rain the engine finally trimmed down. What would cause the engine to get stuck like that? It's been tilted up 100% so many times in its life and Ita never gotten stuck like that.
 
There's grease fittings on both sides of the tilt tube and I've pumped them with grease til it oozes out. But I've also
noticed there's a lot of old grease from years back. How would I clean all this up?
 
Georgiaboy67 said:
my trim and tilt issue has gotten worse.... when I'm idling and I trim the engine down the engine jerks the entire boat.... today I had to tilt the engine up 100% to get onto the bank and when I got back the engine was stuck. The trim motor was running and both up and down button were working and sounding the trim motor but the engine wasn't moving...
Click to expand...

Keep in mind here..... In the up mode the lifting is in full hydraulic mode..... In the down mode, the unit is simply releasing the hydraulic pressure of the center tilt ram and allowing the engine to drop via gravity. This gravity mode exists until the engine hits the trim rams at which point hydraulic pressure takes over to pull in and keep the engine in place hydraulically.

What has happened is that the nylon bushing on the center tilt ram has become corroded with salt between the outside surface of the nylon bushing and the ID top surface of the ram rod. This effectively causes the nylon bushing to grip the retaining pin so tightly that it squeals and will eventually seize up solidly.

When this happens, the up mode will be slow due to friction. When the engine is at full tilt or simply tilted up past the trim mode to some point... when you attempt to trim down, the engine cannot drop via gravity due to the bushing tightness, so the trim rams pull in first after which the center tilt rod takes effect and starts to pull the engine down hydraulically.

Watch the actual operation of the trim and tilt rams and you understand the drift of what I'm explaining.

The cure is to remove the top tilt cylinder retaining pin and the nylon bushing(s) of the top section of the tilt rod, clean all of the corrosion away, grease and install new bushing(s) if needed.

Yeah... it's one hellava job, I know... been there, done that, many times. This is gospel, no guess work! Wish you luck.
 
Thanks joe for the detailed response! Looks like I have my work cut out for me yet again! Does this mean I need to have the engine hooked up to the hoist for support while I remove the top cylinder pin and bushing?
 
joereeves said:
The cure is to remove the top tilt cylinder retaining pin and the nylon bushing(s) of the top section of the tilt rod, clean all of the corrosion away, grease and install new bushing(s) if needed.
Click to expand...

EDIT: Follow up..... This problem can also be caused by corrosion at the steering tube area or the tube retaining nuts being too tight, however, If the "Squealing" is present, it's usually as explained previously.
 
I didn't recognize the pictures and realized that I had lost track of what year engine we were discussing. I was thinking the older style dual trim ram, electric motor on the port side, reservoir on the starboard side... my apologies on that goof. However, what you describes, the actions of the PTT, the squealing...... that still points to either a frozen or too tight steering/tilt tube... OR the bushings in the top of that tilt cylinder.

Yes secure the engine so that it cannot fall.
 
No joe I think you were right, my engine has a main piston like I showed, and then there are 2 rams underneath that one that push in as I trim down. And the tilt/trim motor is on the port side with the reservoir on the starboard side.
 
Georgiaboy67 said:
No joe I think you were right, my engine has a main piston like I showed, and then there are 2 rams underneath that one that push in as I trim down. And the tilt/trim motor is on the port side with the reservoir on the starboard side.
Click to expand...

Oh, okay.... then we are still on the same page then. Strange though... I just went back and looked closer at the two pictures and still don't recognize what I see. Must be the angle or too close, something... weird.
 
It probably just needs greasing... the power trim assembly has never been serviced. Except for last year when I changed out the pt fluid. And it's been doing this since I got the boat. It squeals horribly when it's cooler outside. And it always shakes the boat and squeals when going down regardless of temp. The boat sat untouched for two years before I got it
 
Oh and also the boat has never not once seen saltwater before. It has always been in freshwater only. Papaw bought it brand new in 1997, and only used it on guntersville lake
 
I Did see some black "rub" marks on that piston, I think it may be safe to say my hydraulics may need replacement. It is a BOAT. Hydraulics on this engine are crazy costwise!
 
And lots of it too!! The only worry I have with the PT is one day it's just gonna seize altogether. It's all ready been stuck once but that was with it tilted up 100%
 
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