I have pulled my drive for the last time to replace the Mercruiser Bravo Trim Indicator sender. These things are a big pain in the butt and to crap out every season. It's a ton of work just to get one compression bolt out to route the wires through the transom.
Looking to install mechancial indicators and would like some input from you guy's on your perferred systems. I've not had any experience with these and any advice will be greatly appreciated. Brand and good places to buy would be very helpful.

Valley Boy

What exactly keeps going wrong with it that you have to replace the sensor and wires every year?
If the sensor itself is going bad they can be replaced without the wiring.
Then we have to figure out what's causing the sensor to go bad.
But first, what's wrong with the system?

I am in the same boat ( no pun)

replaced one trim indicator and it doesn't work again. and the other got crushed when the pivot bolt stripped out and pushed it into the gimbal ring. I want mechanical too but just can't see spending $600 on a twin engine setup. I don't even care about the tab indicators. We have been discussing at work about fabricating something to save money. Just haven't done anything yet. It is a real pain as my trim pumps don't run the same speed.

I trim and count...one one thousand...two one thousand.... let off starboard switch....three one thousand....let off port......... a real pain.

So I am looking too. $300 a set.... I'll spend the money.
$500+ ...... it is just too much for cables and levers.......

I also got tired of the hassel replacing trim senders using the book method. Instead installed them backwards with the wires exiting to the rear. Used cable ties to route wires up the backside of the gimbal. Routed the wires through a small hole drilled above the water line a couple of inches to the right of the I/O housing top section sealed with silicone.

Because my drive is under a swim platform and cannot be seen,
cosmetics is not a concern

If necessary the senders can be replaced without hauling the boat.

When I installed a new combination sensor for depth finder, temperature and speed ran that cable through the same hole.

my profession is a well pump mechanic. so I have to make wire splices that are under water every day. why cant you just cut the wires and connect them together with a heavy duty set of water tight heat shrink connectors, the same as used for a submersible well pump. I have to change my own senders and will try this in the up coming weeks.

The problem in splicing the wire is that the insulation deteriorates, especially from the transom to sender. It is not easy to splice at where it comes out thru the hole in the I/O frame. If you get to that point might as well put in a whole new cable/sender assembly.