Bravo X1 Drive Erratic Trim Operation
 

My 2004 Bravo X1 Drive when trimming up or down shudders, has slip stick type of movement. It did not used to do this. It has about 380 hours on it. The fluid reservoir is full and the drive shaft spline is fully lubbed. The merc tech line says to do a pressure test on the pump system.

I am interested in hearing if anyone has experienced this symptom and what was the cause/fix.

Pull the rams off of the drive and work them in and out and see if they extend/retract smoothly with no load.

check the coupler alignment with an alignment tool make sure the motor mounts are tight and true'

did this just start out of no ware or was there some servic done ?

I had pulled the drive and engine 162 hours ago and reassembled with an alignment tool then. I will check the motor mounts as you suggest.

Yes out of no where but it has been doing it for a little while now. I was not sure if it was normal or not but finally decided to take action. No service has been done on the trim since the boat was new.

I will do that.

Rage- I had that problem on my port drive once. I was advised to drain the oil, refill and purge. I did them both and it solved the problem, boar was only 6 years old.

The electrical connections were all good. I disconnected the cylinders from the drive so no load. The pump would randomly labor at different levels of strain as the cylinders were trimmed out or in. The cylinders took turns sticking, shuddering or conversly running smoothly. Sometimes the cylinders would just stop and the pump would stall completely. Sometimes if I would release the trim button and immediately reapply everything started again to work correct....only briefly.

is the boat stored on a lift?? weve seen trim ram wiper seals corrode and pistons would stick. believe it or not, less problems when the drive is in salt water continuously rather than water then air so forth

Yes on a lift since 2005. What do you mean the wiper seals corrode? They are rubber or plastic right? Please elaborate.

well the end caps have rubber seals but on the outside closest to the water is a steel ring that protects the rubber o-rings. the end caps are aluminum so the constant water/air exposure and dissimilar metals causes corrosion and this white crud to form which sometimes makes it hard for the piston to move. just a thought. good luck