Help, Evinrude 150 Ficht won't lift

Revenger715 · 02 August 2015, 16:12

So went to get the boat out of the water yesterday to clean the hull after a week in a mooring and neither the trim up button on the throttle nor the lift button on the engine cowling are functioning. It goes down fine but not up. Not making any noises or anything. Tried maybe 20 times and then finally it worked once..!

Any ideas fellas? I was only saying to an Evinrude dealer on Friday how everything has always worked fine, not a single issue - should have kept my big gob shut.

Also is there some sort of override system so that if this should ever happen I can manually lift the engine (crank it or suchlike?).

Cheers

715

Seaflyer02 · 02 August 2015, 17:18

Hi
On the power distribution panel there is a plug with two wires. I think it is blue for up, green for down. Unplug from the panel and test with a test meter to make sure you are getting power for up and down. If that is fine chances are just needs switch cleaner for the terminals in the plug/socket.
PM me if you need more help.

Chris · 02 August 2015, 18:14

There is a screw valve on the side of the engine bracket that will release the engine and enable you to lift it manually.

Hightower · 03 August 2015, 00:51

I had an occasional problem like you. I replaced the Trim Tilt Relays. There are two in the fuse box and I think that from memory both are the same, but check first. If they are the same try swapping them over and see if it works. I bought them on Ebay for about a £5er each, think Evinrude wanted about £40 for one. There is a bypass on the valve if you want to do it manually, slowly back out the screw till things start to move.

Revenger715 · 24 July 2017, 20:15

So two years later and not used the boat much but it went in for a service March 2016 and I asked them to look at this intermittent fault - they said they tried many times but couldn't replicate it however supplied me a new relay to use in case it happened again.

Lo and behold, boat in the water for the last few days had a few good runs out and then I go to lift the engine, nowt. After about 20th time it lifted. So I replaced the tilt up relay, fingers crossed, went to lift the engine .... STILL
have the problem.

Looking at the post about the blue and green wires, is one of these for up and one for down in which case a bad contact on the 'up' wire could be causing it?

Someone who knows these motors says I might need a complete control panel .. gulp.

Pikey Dave · 24 July 2017, 20:34

Does it lift from the helm switch or the cowl switch?

Revenger715 · 24 July 2017, 20:41

Neither - but if I press the switch on the cowling many (many!) times it eventually works.

Seaflyer02 · 24 July 2017, 21:21

Next time it does this, move the plug with the green and blue wires while asking someone to keep the tilt switch pressed. If the motor lifts then the chances are it is the plug contacts that are not making a good contact. I have had the same problem, once I had cleaned and adjusted the blades on the plug problem sorted. Good luck

whiskylee · 24 July 2017, 22:05

Had a similar problem with my mercury 150hp, it was the a spring corroded behind a bush so it wasn't making a contact inside so it was intermittently not working, you could test by putting 12 volts to your trim pump

breezeblock · 25 July 2017, 07:10

by pass the relay contacts this will tell you whether its the switch on the relay or the signal side of the relay

Revenger715 · 25 July 2017, 10:18

Checked out the blue and green wires this morning (wiggling them whilst pressing the tilt buttons) to no avail.

I'm thinking it has to be the power distribution module hasn't it - a well known problem with early Ficht engines where the joints went dry / cracked on the circuit board. £600 part..!

Revenger715 · 06 August 2017, 19:58

Put a new pdp in today and still got the problem. Arghhhhhhhh!!!!!!