I’ve googled and checked old forums and couldn’t find any conclusive advice so I wanted to come here; apologies if this is a dumb question.
I have a 95 Bayliner with a 120HP Force motor that I use restored this summer. The motor had less than 200 hours on it and replacing the rotten decking was the major challenge.
I performed a complete motor service and replaced a bad stator and found the integral tilt/trim cylinder had a leak around the seal. I replaced the tilt/trim motor and refilled the cylinder and confirmed the tilt/trim works perfectly and the cylinder is at full capacity when level.
I took the boat out to the water a few weekends ago and at the dock, I was able to trim the motor down into the water, reverse from the dock, and at low speed, I have full tilt/trim control. As I got underway, I was nosing up too high so I tried to trim up to bring the bow down and found that while underway, tilt/trim does not move the motor. I can hear the relay click under the cowling and I’m certain voltage is happening but no dice on movement.
I was just out fishing so I putted around the lake without issue. When I returned to the dock, I was in the same scenario that under low speed, the tilt/trim still works and once I was on the trailer I was able to tilt the motor fully out of the water.
In the driveway, I’ve tested that, while pushing back against the motor to add force against the cylinder, tilt/trim operates fine. It only appears to happen when underway.
Any suggestions on what it could be? I tested the kill switch and the Force 120HP doesn’t have any special tilt controls other than over current protection when at full up/full down positions and didn’t seem like that was my cause either.