I have a Johnson 150hp Fast-strike motor - it's a 1997 engine but the boat and engine were bought new in 2001 (I have the original receipt for the boat, it's legit)...

The motor is awesome...starts on a dime, no issues there.

The one issue I have noticed in the past week is the electric trim seems to be muckin up. A friend of mine (and maybe someone on this forum too) suggested that I make sure my engine is trimmed all the way down to let any water leak out. I had it trimmed about 3/4 down because of the travelling bracket so I took that off and trimmed it parallel with the ground and whatta ya know, some water came out of the lower unit. So that's a good thing.

What's bad is that I noticed that the electric trim "strained" when I first touched the up/down buttons. At one point it even stopped pushing the motor up, I had to lift up on it and at that point the trim worked fine. Once that was worked out, the trim works fine, all the way up and down.

I gave it about 2 hours and went back outside to try it again and same thing, it doesn't seem to want to lift the motor up initially unless I give it a "boost"....once I do that, it lifts and lowers the motor fine.

It sounds like the electric motor that runs the trim is straining at first.

Any suggestions on this? I don't know much about boat motors so this is all a foreign language to me. The arms that lift the motor look hydraulic to me, maybe the trim motor needs more lubrication? Are there gears in there that may be stripped so that the intial "lift" is hard on them?

I don't want to get stuck out on the river one day or not be able to trim my motor back up when taking the boat up the ramp on the trailer...

I'll ask my dad, who's a guru.....but just curious if anyone has any knowledge on this topic?

Not sure on the Fast Strike but on my Yammie it is a hydraulic system. Sounds like yours may be too and might just be low on fluid so that when it struggles it is just having trouble building up hydraulic pressure.

Jeff

I think Jeff's on to something there. That would be my guess or at least the first thing I would check.
Blackie,

Low on fluid is my first guess also.

Okay, guess I need to look through the manual and see how I can replinish that.

Yep , Jeff is the man on this one. Mine was doing the same thing. fluid level was low. Should load from the top I would think. Speaking of that i need to work on mine. Seal is leaking.