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Johnson 140 Trim motor not working

cliveadams

New member
" The trim motor on my 1980 Jo

" The trim motor on my 1980 Johnson 140 is not operating. When I try to trim UP, I hear the click of the relay but nothing happens. When I try to trim down I hear nothing, and nothing happens. The same thing happened the other day, and I had just about resigned myself to taking the powerhead off and removing the trim motor, when after a little banging with a rubber mallet on the trim motor, it started operating again. I took the boat around the lake - no problems at all. This time though, the banging trick didn't work.

The batteries and relay are not the problem - both deep cycle batteries are new and well over 12 volts, and the connections are fine - the same voltage as the battery is maintained through to the last connection before the wire goes into the motor. I have checked the amperage when trimming up and it's over 70, so it's drawing much more than it should.

Any hints before I remove the trim motor? It looks impossible to do this without removing the power head because one bolt is completely hidden next to the bracket - any tricks to minimize the effort?
Any ideas why the banging seemed to make it work the first time? "
 
"Clive.... First off, there&#3

"Clive.... First off, there's no need to remove the powerhead in order to remove the PTT electric motor.

Secondly, the 1980 PTT units did not incorporate relays, but rather used a solenoid for the up mode and a straight through circuit for the down mode. The solenoid would click for "up", but nothing would be heard for "down".

The electric motor on that unit should have three wires.... black for ground, and a green wire (down) and a blue wire (up) for the travel mode.

Trace the electric motor wires to their connector and unplug them. Via jumper wires, connect the negative battery terminal to the motor's black wire. Then, also via a jumper wire, one at a time connect the battery positive cable to the green and then the blue wire.

The electric motor should run in one direction, then in the other direction. If the electric motor does not run, then obviously it will require replacing or repairing.

However, if all is well, then the problem is with either the PTT switch, or dirty (possibly broken) connections. Don't overlook the actual battery terminal connections. I've seen many that were tight but dirty/corroded which resulted in a voltage drop.

Joe
"
 
Here is another Johnson 140 with tilt/trim problems. This is a 1983 Motor. was working. I disconnected the leads to replace a transom boot and up and down worked following the re-installation. then stopped working and could hear a slight click when switch was pressed. Jumped the motor directly from the battery, Up and down worked. hadn't had trouble with the switch itself, two solenoids in a Fuse box were located. You Tube video showed the same problem, so as in the video I replaced both solenoids but still is not raising or lowering. Jumped the motor direct again, and motor raised and lowered. pulled the switch out and jumped the terminals on the switch itself and only got the click from fuse box same as pressing the switch. What am I missing?
 
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