Offshoreonly.com - dazed and confused

just put my drives on and was missing one rubber bushing so i left the trim cylinders disconnected on the starboard side. went to check everything and the trim pump would only operate in the down position. changed solenoid checked switch, wires, everything i can imagine. no noise at all not even a click. got a bushing and hooked up the trim cylinders and it came to life. question is, does there need to be a load on the cylinders for the rams to operate? i can't imagine that but it started working as soon as i hooked em up. could i just have a short somewhere and it was just a coincidence. thanks.