Tilt trim problem?

Hello, I have a 1981 Sea Ray SRV 195 260hp. I can't get the sterndrive to move. It's a OMC 800 and when you press the button it just makes a winding noise. Nothing moves, I'm new to the boating world but
I've worked on cars for years. Just needing any help possible. Pictures of loacation, how to's l, anything to help me get my boat on the water.

Have you checked the trim motor reservior and make sure it has fluid and check on the web depending on the motor it has and follow the bleeding instructions ,there is a bleeder screw that you have to turn 2 turns to open and leave it open. After filling operate the trim up and down to bleed. If you can get it up and it won't go down have someone push it down while you operate the down switch. Do that until the system is working properly.

Where is the reservoir located? Also does the trim move the motor up and down? Does the tilt move the sterndrive up and down?

The reservoir should be located inside the engine compartment and usually mounted on the transom. See picture. There is a fill hole somewhere on the pump. A good way to fill the pump with fluid is to use a mustard bottle. The tip of the bottle is small enough to fit into the fill hole on the pump.


TRIM is what you would do while underway, and TILT is what you do when you load your boat back onto the trailer. Both functions move the drive in relation to the boat, but you would never want to perform the TILT function while underway, as it lifts the out-drive too far out of the water.

Some boats have two switches for these functions. You'll find one switch on the throttle and the other at the transom. The button at the throttle raises and lowers the drive but will only raise it partially out of the water. The button back at the transom is the "Tilt". It's important to know that they both essentially do the same thing, except tilt takes the drive out of the water and places it into a position you would only want to use when the boat is being towed.

The 800 Stringer drives don't use hydraulics to tilt, they use a worm gear driving a clutch pack on the port side of the drive. The motor is in boat on lower port side by transom. It turns a small shaft with a roll pin thru it that engages the worm gear. Those shafts break easily. The motor will run but nothing happens. Two bolts hold the tilt motor to the transom housing and can be removed from inside the boat. Also, the clutch pack is held together by a snap ring, I had one break once and the drive would not stay down when put in reverse. I have we old pats around if you have trouble finding them. Message me if you ea t more info. BTW, the tilt system on those units is separate from the tilt system. If you have power trim, then you have a motor on the front motor mount that runs a jack screw that raises and lowers the front of the engine.

I figured it out. It was the tilt shaft. It broke at the motor.

Common failure point, glad you got it sorted out!