For my bday I got the new actuator for my starboard trim tab. Turns out, a $30 switch was all I needed. This is the second Carlinh switch that has failed me. Does anyone know why a 20 amp carling rocker switch would not live up to a year of trim tab use? They are literally marketed for Trim tabs!
Anywho, here is the longer story of the gremlin hunt in case it helps anyone.
Pulled the boat into the garage and enlisted my two youngest mechanics in training:
We spent the morning disconnecting the old trim tab, under the assumption the tab was bad. I had dome some testing but apparently jumped to the conclusion that a 25 year old actuator was more likely the issue than the <1 year old switch. The acutator had worked fine until Sept, then it slowly began to fail to extend, but retracted fine.
We had to be creative to run the wiring, since the TT wire was spliced to the console wire somewhere deep in the bilge. We had JUST enough console wite to get the splice to an open access area to cut and resplce the new actuator wire. After re-running the new wiring through all the clamps (fun) and hooking it up to the switch panel, we thought we were golden.
A quick test crushed our hopes. The new actuator only retracted, but wouldnt extend. Back to square one and we ran out of time to figure it out.
We spent the better part of the next day mapping out and testing the wiring section by section.
The one thing I was certain of is that it wasnt the switch. . . . It was less than a year old and the initial voltage testing (without a load) showed it was working perfectly. It was also wited exactly like the switch next to it for my port tab, which was working fine.
After hours of testing and mapping and thinking, we got creative and hooked the switch back up to the actuator. Lo and behold, when it was hooked up I was getting voltage on both output tabs of the switch, but only when I tried to extend the tab. Somehow, current was jumping the terminals and sending voltage to the actuator to extend and retract simultaneously.
Gotta be the wiring, which as you can see is extremely complicated. 10 pin switch and lots of jumpers. Must have screwed something up.
But the wiring was right, so I had one last test, one I had been avoiding. Take out both switches, and swap all the wiring. In the cold garage, this was the equivalent of trying to get two 90 year old men to play twister. The only thing this would tell me is of the switch was the problem. Which, of course, I knew it wasnt.
But, turns out . . . It was. So off to the only marine store in town to get a new 10 pin rocker switch . . But they didnt have any. 68 bucks later to buy a lenco switch, I now have two working trim tabs. I will need to replace the lenco switch with a lighted rocker switch when it comes in, but for now, she is functional.
