[Roger Butterfield]

Hi Folks - My Bravo III trim is having difficulty going down without the assistance of me pushing it with a pole. It will come up without any problem at all. Note that the trim motor will run just fine in both up or down, just that the outdrive won't go down easily. Also, the trim pump resevoir fluid level is about 25% down from the filler cap (with outdrive in up or down position).

Will the fluid level effect whether the outdrive will go down easily?

Could it be that the trim Trim Ram Cylinder seals are bad? If so, how do I remove the cylinders?

Or, could it be that the trim pump is by-passing and needs to be replaced? If so, difficult to remove/replace? I'm told that there is enough fluid as long as you can see oil in the reservoir.

Thanks,

Roger

[csterner]

I don't know if this helps or not. But try lightly sanding your outdrive rams with an emory cloth and then wiping down with ATF(automatic transmission fluid) and see if that helps. I had a similar issue on my Bravo 3 and the ATF will help lube up the ram and seals.

[Roger Butterfield]

Well what I did was wipe some marine grease on both cylinders, hit the down motor and gave it some help to get it in the down position, brought it back up and now it goes down all the way with no assist at all. So it is definitely the Trim Ram Cylinders that will need to come off and get rebuilt. Some guy on Go2Marine tried to convince me it was the hydraulic valve body just below the trim motor that needed to be replaced so fortunately I know exactly what is wrong now. Mechanics have quoted me about $225 to rebuild each one so my question now is, "How difficult will it be to remove these things so I can bring them into the shop for rebuild?"

Thanks for your reply,

Roger