Sealine 290 Ambassador or similar for trim tab advice

[robyonfrome]

Both trim tabs look to have had it, one went a year ago, other just gone, have kindly been given advise by Trickett Marine Products to put direct feed onto each motor at the junction box to see if its not an electrical problem. Anyone know where the junction box is, its so tight for space down there with twin 41s I have a job to see anything, even more get to it, cant even see where the wires come into the hull from the motors to trace them anywhere. I don’t mind buying new ones if that’s what gone but I will still need to find the junction box to attach them. Any advice greatly appreciated.

 

[SolentPhill]

the black box is usually up to 2 feet from the control panel, it will have a group of wires going in and usually 2 groups of wires coming out and joining a socket. the 2 sockets will be each side trim tab, if one was working you could swap these around to see where the fault is. if both are not working it could be a number of things. My tabs are Lenco and on their website they have a fault down load sheet which gives some usefull info suggest you look to see if yours does that. The wires coming through the hull normally come though the back of the top of the ram through the transom and join the wire loom, if you can find them you will need to trace back to the first sockets where there will be an extension length which will join the sockets that come out of the black box.

Sometimes a job like that where the wiring is so good you cant find it, if you are replacing the tabs you may as well get the extension cable and put a new run in.

The black box is about 1 inch thick and 4 inches wide by 3 inches high.

 

[halcyon]

Both trim tabs look to have had it, one went a year ago, other just gone, have kindly been given advise by Trickett Marine Products to put direct feed onto each motor at the junction box to see if its not an electrical problem..

On the transom by the trim tab, each side, the early boats were just a choc block connector.

The wires are number coded, 1 and 2 are the motor feeds.

You could remove the control unit, and put a feed on the cables there to check if you have a faulty control head.

There are fuses on the control unit to check, plus relay failure was a common control head fault, or diode may have blown if a basic manual unit.

Cable numbers are

1 motor feed
2 motor feed
3 tab position indicator voltage
4 positive feed to tab position indicator.
5 negative feed for tab position indicator.

Brian

 

[Viscount]

As Brian says, choc blocks are likely in the engine bay; on mine when I got it, these were corroded and had failed; I reterminated and put into splashproof boxes. Since then, the ELTRIM units failed but that was due to the gaitors on the actuators being beyond life so that's worth checking. On the control panel, my pushbuttons were iffy; I replaced with switches from Farnell. All has been well since. If you have ELTRIM, Seabridge Marine can provide spares (no association).

 

[ian38_39]

Buttons on the control head went on both my Sealines, had to change a motor on this one too.

Buttons seem iffy on outdoor units but an easy and cheap fix, Motors corrode if water gets past the bellows. My wires are into chock blocks on the transom.

 

[Scubadoo]

As Brian says, choc blocks are likely in the engine bay; on mine when I got it, these were corroded and had failed; I reterminated and put into splashproof boxes. Since then, the ELTRIM units failed but that was due to the gaitors on the actuators being beyond life so that's worth checking. On the control panel, my pushbuttons were iffy; I replaced with switches from Farnell. All has been well since. If you have ELTRIM, Seabridge Marine can provide spares (no association).

I had exactly the same problem on my Sealine S24, choc blocks badly corroded and replaced with waterproof boxes - was a pig of a job behind the engine and the wires being short.

Why oh why did/do Sealine fit choc boxes that corrode.

 

[robyonfrome]

Thanks guys
I had a look over the weekend couldnt see anything that looked like a (chock block) on the transom but there again its hard to see anything down there, am I right in thinking as you said you take the push button control box off and underneath just conect a live feed to 1 or 2, On mine there is a trunking that runs across the top of the transom with all the wires in, I think the wires from the outside of the trim tabs come in behind that but there are lots of wires in it.

 

[Viscount]

You could try that to see if the problem is the control panel. You need to put ground and +12v on wires 1 and 2; which way round you do it determines whether the tab goes up or down.