2003 Mercury 90 horse power tilt quit working on Sunday. I tried the side screw to release the hydraulic fluid, but I just couldn’t turn it. It seems to me there should be an easy way to override this system. Any help? Maybe a solenoid?I ended up jacking the boat off the trailer and then sticking timbers between the bunks to gain 4 inches of clearance and then milked it home. Skeg is still in one piece. Not fun.
did it quit in both directions? does the switch on the side of the motor work? or is everything dead?
How exactly did it quit? Did it slow down or work glitchy first, or just no power at any of the switches all of a sudden?
seems like it may be a electrical problem.. when you try and trim it can you hear anything click or maybe watch the voltage meter on your graph and look for a drop in voltage when the motor isnt running? could be a fuse broken wire???
It quit suddenly. All the fuses look good. I hear both relays click when the switch is engaged.
Seems to me that I once ran a jumper to the tilt solenoid from the positive post and tested the solenoid. Not sure if this is recommended or not.
By the way, if it is the trim motor- consider having it rebuilt rather then buying a new one.
I have experienced the same problem a few times with a 1992 Mercury 75 HP tiller. It is most likely the relay for the up stroke, just because they click does not mean they work. They are the same part number for both up and down, I would suggest you get one and change it out.
One time I replaced the relay and it would still not work. Turned out to be a bad ground. All the ground wires mount on the starter mounts. Check the connections there first, make sure they are tight and clean.
mine did the same last fall. the motor was froze solid!!! but it still released with the screw to raise and lower manually! I just put a new motor and works great! 
I got the biggest screw driver to back out that white plastic plug. Couldn’t get it to budge. Needless to say, the slot on the screw head is boogered up now.
I’ve had the relays crap out on both my fishing boat and pontoon the last 2 years. The motor on my fishing boat would go up but not back down. I trimmed up the motor to cross a sand bar and it wouldn’t go back down. Both my buddy and I had to plant our fat butts in the back of the boat to keep the prop in the water while we gimped back to the landing. My pontoon was the opposite. It was stuck all the way down and wouldn’t go up. The relays are pretty cheap and are simple to replace. Even if you don’t need to replace them both, it is a good to have a backup.
my tilt and trim problem started out motor would come up but would not trim down i switched the relays and the motor would trim down but not up so i bought a new relay and replaced the one i thought was bad and trimmed down but not up swapped them and again would trim up but not down , not making any sense to me any ideas to fix this problem ?
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