Lower unit switch?
 

The lower unit of my Alpha 1 will lower, but not raise up. I thought it was a faulty switch, but even when I bypassed it I had the same problem. It is a 3 wire swith which is off in the neutral position.

I assumr the mechanism for lowering it would be the same as the one to raise it, so I'm confused why it will only lower.

I trailer the boat, and now that it is in the down position, I cannot tow it anywhere.

Anyone have a clue what this might be?

Thanks,

Re: Lower unit switch?
 

The lower unit (Bravo III) on my 220 Talari has had the same issue. I have a dual battery setup on mine and when I am trying to raise the lower unit on only one battery and the battery is a little low it will not raise. The Hydraulic pump will engage to lower the unit but it will not raise. When I throw the switch to both batteries it will raise the lower unit. After the batteries are fully charged either by using the boat or via charger the problem goes away. I would check to be sure that your battery is good and carrying a full charge, and also check your terminals and connections.
Good luck!

Re: Lower unit switch?
 

Re: Lower unit switch?
 

Just my two cents worth, but I would make sure that your problem isn't the selonoid on the trim pump. I had intermittent issues with my trim going up. It would always go down, but sometimes when I pushed it up, it would just click once and do nothing. I went back to the pump and cleaned up all the connections and the problem went away. I am not saying that it can't be the trim limit switches because I know they will get water in them, but I would rule out the simpler fixes first. Replacing those switches looks a little involved.

Sounds like you already ruled out the actual switch.
Good luck.

Re: Lower unit switch?
 

On my quicksilver control there is a separate button just below the throttle handle to tilt the engine up. The up button on the handle will only raise it to the top of the trim range.

Just wondering if it's something as simple as that.

Re: Lower unit switch?
 

Thanks to all responders. It did turn out to be the solenoid. Of course I did not find this out until after I had already replaced the transom mounted lower unit switch.

As for my dilema of not being able to move it on the trailer because the unit was down, I crossed the hot and blue wire on the solenoit. This confirmed the splenoid was bad as the lower unit came up when this was done.

Something a mechanic told me which I did not know, crossing the blue and hot wires raises it, so think of blue as sky (up) while crossing green and hot lowers it, so think of green as down toward the ground. The logic was the same on the transom switch.

My thanks again to all responders.