Evinrude Etec Tilt Trim gauge no longer working

[Seaharrier]

Hi,

Today I noticed that the tilt/trim gauge on our rib is no longer working. When switching on the engine (evinrude etec 250HP), the needle of the gauge jumps to the trimmed down position, but noting else happens.

Is this a problem that I can easaly fix myself or should my dealer look at this?

Thanks for the advise.

Paul

[willk]

Hi Paul,

This seems to be a common problem. It sounds like you're getting power to the gauge if the needle is moving a bit. That suggests the sender at the motor is jammed or broken. I don't know the 250, but on the 90's it's a simple lever arrangement on the mount that is pushed up and down by the engine. It may be stuck down and you can use some WD40 type spray to free it. If you can move it and the gauge doesn't react (power on) then you may have a pinched cable. Happy hunting!

[jyasaki]

As WillK mentioned, the sensor is usually a lever on the motor bracket. It is usually a variable resistor, and spring loaded so it follows the engine position. Often it becomes salt-encrusted, or the grease that lubes it thickens up, and it stops following the motor position.

Take a look at your bracket, and see if you can find a lettle lever that gets moved (or in your case, possibly doesn't get moved) by the midsection frame of the motor. You'll have to figure out how to free it up (I'm not familiar with Evinrudes.)

If you find the sensor and move it manually and the needle doesn't move, then you've probably got a bad connection in the wiring somewhere.

Luck;

jky

[Seaharrier]

Thanks for this info. Today we removed to boat from the water as our hilliday is almost over. I'l start cleaning the boat later on this evening as it is currently to hot. I'll let you konw if I can find this sensor because I have no clue how it looks like.

I'll keep you informed.

BTW, it is amazing how fast small weed and shells as growing on the hull of the boat in the med. Boat has been in the water for a little over 2 weeks and it is full of green dots from weeds and white dots from small shells. In the North Sea we don't have this problem so fast.

[Seaharrier]

It was the the lever that was jammed due to salt corrosion. The lever indeed follows the engine via a spring. Due to all the salt and probably due to the fact that the rib has not been used during last winter and spring that spring got jammed. Some WD40 and moving the lever manually up and down did the trick!

Thanks a lot!

Paul