problems with my power trim/tilt

Hey guys, here we have a few pics of my unit attached onto my Yamaha 150 TLRY VMAX OX66 engine, 2000 model. Last year the trim/tilt was acting rough. Would take 20-30 seconds sometimes at the ramp before it would lift the motor. On the water it seemed to perform a bit better. I would venture to say it has air in the system, but who knows. I played with it a bit today and now it won’t do anything. Admittedly because I really don’t know what I’m doing. I was using my Yamaha manual and still am not sure what I’m looking at. First things first: in the first pic, you’ll see a screw top on the right side, where it’s wet, that has an ‘X’ on it. Is that the oil fill? Or what exactly am I looking at there? I know in the second pic, which is taken from the port side, that is the manual screw to unscrew to purge air and all that.
I was moving the motor up and down and nasty watered down oil was spewing from the right side X screw, as I loosened it up. So…..what do I do now? What if I need to drain it?
I’m really hoping that I don’t have to take the trim unit off the bracket and disconnect it and all, but in a sense that would be easier too, I bet. Any direction you could offer would be greatly appreciated. Thank you–

Brian

pic #1 is the fill hole cover.

pic #2 is the manual over-ride screw.

if you have water you may have a bad piston seal.

I’m guessing you need new trim seals. you are probably low on oil and or air in the system.

Thanks Dan. The cap with the X on it is the fill cap, correct? I just wanted to make sure.

I have a print out of how to purge air from the system, so I’m going to try that and see if it’ll work and get it running again. Because right now I’m getting nothing from it.

So is a piston seal a job I can do? I imagine I’d have to take the unit off the boat all together? It looks like you release a couple clips and it’ll come right out.

The bolt with the x on it looks like it could be the fill hole on your reservoir. It also looks like you may have a leak on the seal on your trim rods. Regardless, any time you open your system, you have to make sure you bleed it out using your manual release.
I did this on my system, and to fix it all and locate the correct parts, I looked up the parts diagrams on Yamaha’s website. I also looked up how to bleed out the tilt & trim properly. Changing a couple seals worked well and I haven’t had any problems since.
FYI, do not strip out the bolt on your fill reservoir! My previous owner had done this, and it cost me $80 to replace the reservoir.

Good thing you brought that up Kid; the reason the right side of the unit is wet and oily is because I had the reservoir cap off and oil oozed out. It’s a cap instead of a bolt, and I might wanna get a new one. Right now it’s coming off and going on easily, but who knows when that could end.

I seen your problem and finally had to sign up so I could post, I have been a lurker for awhile. I’m pretty sure your problem is the same as I had on my vmax. Your cap on the right cylinder has turned loose and you lost oil and got water in there. Unscrew the rest of the way and check your o-ring. Put cap back on fill with oil and you’re good to go.

Bbasser:
Welcome to IDO.
It’s guys n gals that know stuff just like this that make this site extremely valuable…
Thanks

The seal is easy to replace, but you’ll need a spline wrench to take the caps off and replace the seal. Also, when you take out the fill plug, I believe my new one came with an o ring, which will prevent over tightening.

And if you do need a new o-ring go to the hardware store they are way cheaper, and the oil is just power steering fluid.

Welcome to IDO Basser!

I wish it was as easy as it sounds, but it won’t be. It puked out a bunch of gray watery fluid over and over, and right now it’s producing no pressure at all. I’m thinking I may just try to remove the unit from the boat all together and go through it and make sure it’s working the way it should. I know nothing about what I’m doing, but I really appreciate you guys helping me out. Looks like another learning experience I’m diving into.

Don’t give up so easy. The grey liquid is just water in your oil, just drain it all and start with fresh fluid and work the motor back and forth a lot and bleeding it often. It took me acouple of hours last time. A couple of bottles of power steering fluid and a couple hours is a lot cheaper than shop labor rates or a new trim unit. Good luck.

Basser,
That’s true, but at the same time, it’s water in my oil for a reason. I guess I can try a few bottles of fluid and see what happens, but sooner or later I’m thinking I’ll be disconnecting the thing and putting it on a bench and seeing if I can do the job myself. I’ve got a guy or two that might be able to help, and I’d love to have it working properly. But I’ll definitely keep you updated. After I get back from the sports shows this weekend, of course.