DF300AP tilt problem

[RRovang]

I have twin 2015 DF300 AP motors on my boat. They have just under 230 hours on them. I just bought the boat last fall.

When we did the survey, the port side motor would struggle a little to tilt up or down. It would make a popping sound and would not move as fast as the other side. The surveyor said it was probably a low battery.

When I got the boat home, I charged the batteries, but no change in tilt function. Since they were 6 years old, i then replaced the batteries. Still no change. Today, I went to start the motors and the port side would not go down. I tried the helm switch and also the switch on the cowling and there was a faint click, but the motor would not engage and turn on.

With the motor up, I can't remove the cowling. Any ideas as to what might be the problem? I've been searching the web and found lots of opinions... Low fluid, bad relay, bad switch and bad tilt motor. I'm hoping to narrow it down a little. My mechanic is a 1 hour boat ride away and I'm not sure that I want to make that trip on 1 engine.

Thanks in advance!

[Bluewater23t]

There is a screw in the bracket allowing you to manually lower the motor. Not sure how it is in Zukes, as mine are still new to me, but in my old Etecs, it was simple to switch out the trim/tilt switch (basically just a connector on both sides). Maybe swap the switch from the working starboard motor to see if that fixes it. If not, move to the next....

[RRovang]

Yes, I found the screw. The dilemma is, if I lower the motor manually to remove the cover and I find out that it's the tilt motor that's bad, I won't be able to manually lift the motor back up to repair it. It's a chicken and egg kind of deal. I also have to worry about minus tides where I live. At a real low tide, by boat sits in the mud, so I need to be able to get the motor up.