Trim switch intermittently stops working (1998 190)

[ivancunningham]

Hey all - new to boating here and have just been loving my new-to-me 1998 190 that's in great shape!

Maybe the 5th day I took it out, I was out in a pretty gnarly weed-filled lake, and tried to trim up and it got jammed and the switch just stopped working. Ended up shutting off the engine, clearing out all the gunk, flipping battery switch, unplugging and replugging the wiring harness and removing/re-entering fuse and after like 5 minutes it just started magically working again.

Since then, this has been common occurrence though. After buzzing around the lake for 10 or 20 or 30 minutes with it working fine, it will just go dead. Then I basically have to shut everything down and wait a while, and it will just eventually start working again. Like rebooting a dang internet router. Again it will just click back at the motor, but won't move engine up/down at all.

I hired a mobile boat mechanic guy out, and he first replaced the 2 relays, said that should fix it, but same thing happened after I took it out that day. So he comes back a few days later, said he called Volvo, and they told him to just connect the blue and green wires directly instead of having the little white to black plastic wiring connector, which he did, and today, same thing happened.

He thinks it could be battery related (though my battery always shows as full and healthy when I plug it into charger), or a new trim motor is needed. At this point I don't know if this guy knows what he's doing so I wanted to ask for a second opinion. I just want it fixed because it's so stressful when you're pulling into the dock and it won't come up!

Anyone here have some things I could check or do myself, or even ask him so I am a little more informed?

Thanks in advance! So happy I found this forum!

Volvo Penta 5.0 GL - here's some pics!

[capn272]

If bridging the solenoids isn't forcing your pump to work one way or another, then it's likely your pump I would think. Once you bridge those contacts your battery is free flowing to the pump. The only other way I could think to test it would be to take another battery, wire the pump up, and bridge the solenoids again and see. If it works, then it's the battery.. if it repeats the problem, it's the pump.

That's my understanding of how all this stuff works, atleast. I've had multiple (different) trim issues this year and have been forced to learn about it.

[ivancunningham]

Thanks @capn272 !

I don't know if I know yet which wires to try and connect direct into to jump ... I'll have to read more diagrams and such.