Allright, a guy I planned on fishing with is having a problem with trimming up his outboard. He says everything was working yesterday with the batteries half charged. He even trimmed it up then back down in place. Now he can't get it trimmed up again and his depth finder that is attached to his council isn't working. Everything else is working and it seems the batteries are fully charged. It also is making a clicking noise when he tries trimming it down even further (its down all the way).  

Has anyone ever seen this problem before and if so how did you fix it? I don't know much about boats, is there any way to manually raise the motor? Also, if we can do this can you travel with it trimmed up or is this a big no no? The reason why I am asking is because I planned on playing hookie at work on tuesday and head out with him.

Thanks, Jason

What kind and size motor do you have? All your bigger motors have a release

screw, mine is on the left side of the motor. Some motors have a fuse link

at the battery. I really need more info on the motor.

Its a 40 HP engine, I don't know what kind though and he has a new born and I don't want to call and possible wake the baby.  Any other questions I will try to answer but I don't have a lot of information. I know I am making it difficult.  

Well it looks like the outboard was made by Mercury (40HP).  The main issue is we are worried about launching the boat when it isn't fully trimmed up.  

Thanks, Jason

Does it have a trailer button?

There should also be trim limit switches (maybe that is the problem).

Well we found the screw to manually raise the motor so we found a quck fix to the problem.  Thanks for the help/ideas.  

The clicking sound is usually the relays between the switch and the tilt motor.  I would troubleshoot the relays and I bet the clicking sound is coming from the relays.  Measure the voltage on both sides and check connections for corrosion.