I have been working on my boat.  I am trying to get the trim functioning, so I can get the thing in the water.  It goes up but will not go down.  When I got it from my father in law he stated it had a problem.  I can do the basics, but am not a mechanical genius.  I put fluid in and was actually trimming it up and down.  Then I went to trim it down, 1 last tme to make sure it wasn't a fluke and it started to grind--almost if it was stuck or stalling.  I pulled the top where the wiring harness is.  It appears there are 4 magnets attached to springs that are attached to 4 wires.  I am assumming that those magnets work in pairs to go up and go down.  Well, 1 of them is broken--so what do you guys know and is there any help for me.

make of motor.

Garnet

90 Merc 75 hp

Those "magnets" were not magnets, they were the brushes.  They have no control over the direction the motor turns.  The polarity of the voltage going to the motor controls that.   Before you can go any further you will need to see if starter/altinator rebuild shop in your area can replace the brushes and let them put it back together for you and check it out.

The motor normally has three wires, one is the common, the others make the motor turn in different directions by controlling the polarity.   for instance, the common and the blue turns the motor one direction to make trim up, the common and the green reverses the motor direction to make the trim go down.

Usually if the motor runs, the motor is not the problem with not going up/down. Usually one of the UP/Down relays is messing up. However in your case, you've got to get the motor fixed and back on the boat before you can troubleshoot anything else.

Hey, thanks a lot for the help and direction.