Can I safely remove the tilt motor on my boat and simply run without one?

Question

I have a 16 ft Tri-hull boat with a 70hp Johnson outboard. The tilt motor is shot and has been for years according to the previous owner. The problem is, after manually lifting the motor out of the water and leaving it lifted overnight, apparently the pistons on the tilt motor expanded and are now stuck in the up position. Now the motor will not go all the way back into the down position which makes it impossible to run full throttle because the prop ends up too high in the water at any sort of decent speed. My question is whether I could simply remove the tilt motor so that it will not keep the motor from lowering all the way down? Is it ok to run a boat that previously had a tilt motor without one? Also, if I do remove the tilt motor, can I do this without first removing the outboard motor? It seems to me from looking at it that I could simply remove the tilt motor and run without it, but I wanted to make sure I'm not getting in over my head.

Answer 1

My best advice for you is this:  ask someone who knows their stuff to take a look at it.  You could be missing something, or there could be an easy fix to get it working again.  Don't just give up and remove it from the boat.  I have an I/O, not an outboard, but on mine I need to constantly adjust my trim/tilt so the boat runs smoothly and efficiently.  And there are times when you suddenly run into shallow areas, and you need to raise the prop up, but not completly out of the water, so you can still maneuver.

If this trim motor works like this (tilts lower unit up/down while underway), I would get it fixed rather than remove.  But if its ONLY for propping up the engine during trailering/storage - yank it!

Answer 2

I think you should have someone look at it- might be an easy pic. However to answer your question yes you can, just make sure you get a pin to lock your engine in position, otherwise when you put it in reverse you engine will shoot out of the water

Answer 3

the way I would do this is simple.... drain any fluid out of the unit... this way you can lift the motor up and down / without any pressure on the pistons or even any pressure that would show up in the cly..... I have done this before with my

         OMC 150 hp.... you can relieve the presure and this would allow the motor the be raised manuely.... good luck- get back at me if you need more help...

Answer 4

I have been a boat owner for many years and I simply do not understand your question.  How can you "RUN" a boat without a motor and what is a tilt motor and I have never heard of pistons locking in position unless the motor was run without oil. "Seized".

Answer 5

This engine has a reverse lock mechanism so no worries about it popping out of the water in reverse.

To manually raise and lower the motor you can use the release valve on the side of the motor clamp bracket, look close and you will find a small hole on the bracket behind that is a flat head s***w now turn this anti-clock wise about 2 turns. It will be quite slow going because the passages are small but it works for emergence's.

If you take the power TNT off the tilt pin will be used to set the trim level. However if you remove the whole unit which can be done by tilting the motor all the way up, but what a shame if it's only a small problem that could easily fix by either topping up the fluid or having a mechanic take a quick look at it.

So to cut this story short yes you can remove the TNT unit while the engine is mounted.

Happy boating.

Answer 6

you should be able to just take the shoulder bolt out and then take off the plate from the motor. it wont hurt anything unless you get into some shallow water. all that does is lift the motor for trailering and trim for more speed.