Matt2000horizon180 wrote:
Thanks everyone. My system looks just like picture above.
Any recommendations on pulling the relays? The female receiver of relays is a very fimsey plastic bracket. Was thinking of uplugging the battery and trying to pry the relays off or grabbing relay with vice grips. Should it be that secure? It is 12 years old.
Generally speaking, relays seat pretty secure whether it be on a boat or a car. I pulled mine after 14 years in salt and while they were not easy to get out, they eventually gave in.
Before you go pulling them though, make sure that you test them by listening for the tell tale "click". I have been around relays awhile and I have never seen one that was bad but still "clicked"
Then, check to make sure your helm switch works by pulling the three wire plug in the engine bay (on mine it was on the stern side on top of the engine) and checking continuity between the red wire and the blue/green wires when the trim button is pressed.
If it does click and you have continuity on both sides (when the button is pressed and the meter is on the correct wire obviously) I would unplug the motor and try jumping it both ways directly from the battery (the motor only has two wires going in, and works by reversing direction when the polarity is reversed).
If both relays click and the motor turns both ways and you can rule out a faulty helm switch THEN I would worry about diving into pulling the relays and taking a multimeter tot he seats. The above three preliminary items should only take you 20 minutes at most to run through and could save you ALOT of headache.