Stern up/down gauge

My stern gauge is stuck, showing me the stern is in the up position but my stern drive is down. I've notice also my stern drive won't come all the way up when stopped or up on plane. I have a 2002 260 Sea Ray. Of course this happened a week later after having no issues at all. It was working fine. (so I thought). Any thoughts or suggestions.
Billy
"Chillin"

Read this: http://www.boatfix.com/merc/bullet/92/92_12.pdf

The two round "pucks" on either side of the outdrive, port side is the limit switch, STB side is the trim sender. Over time the wires tend to crack etc and water works is way inside them (they are basically a rheostat) and they corrode etc. It's a little bit of a job to replace them, have to remove the drive and loosen up the bell housing to run the wires. Most people do or have this done when the bellows are replaced. Before you ask, no you can't splice the wires - well you can, but they will not hold up. If yours are acting up, at this point you have nothing to loose by taking them off and cleaning them up inside, you can do this by just removing the screws holding them on. Other than an aggravation they are not critical obviously your gauge is not working right so you have to trim it by feel and worst case the limit switch is not letting the drive trim up at all, but you can bypass it if needed.

Does the trailer function work?

There are sensors on the side of the outdrive that go bad from time to time.

One side tells the gauge it's position and the other side is a limit switch and can be adjusted for Max and Min trim movement of optimum performance.

If the trailer function is working to raise and lower the entire outdrive at least your pump/hydraulic system is working.... I would then point towards bad sensors on the drive.


Bill you beat me to it. ..... my slow typing skills.

Sometimes my trim gauge sticks so I tap it and it works again. If you have a trim limit switch failure the trim button usually won't work.