Trim gauge calibration

[MikeCSr]

I have a 2020 Tracker PT 175 TXW with a 75HP merc serial number 2B729824. The trim gauge at full trim down is below zero and when I trim it up to optimal plane height the gauge is a little above 0 and fully lifted for trailering is at about 50%.
I have searched high and low on the forums and the rest of the net to find out if there is a self-remedy to this as its "kind of" annoying but if I can't fix it myself, I will just keep it as is as it's not important enough to drop off at the BPS shop for lord knows how long.
Some mercs you just loosen the 2 screws that hold the sensor on the outboard in place and rotate it to and fro to adjust to zero when trimmed all the way down. My sensor does not rotate or anything when loosened and I think it is a sensor if I was to go digital screen gauges or something. Anyone else have this problem and figured it out, please let me know how you adjusted it.
I know I should also post this in the Mercury threads.. but figured I would start out here
Thank you in advance!!

[azccj]

I have a 2021 same boat as you with same engine. And my trim gauge reads just like yours. Like you I tried to adjust it but like you, I discovered it isn't adjustable. Maybe that's how they come nowadays.

[R2Tracker]

On my 60, the analog trim sender, where its mounted to the engine, one of the bolt holes should be slotted to allow for a little bit of adjustment. You cant do much about the gauges range of movement for running on plane or full tilt, but may be able to get enough adjustment so that the needle reads 0 when fully trimmed down.

pics aren't mine just some I found online to give a reference where to look for the sender.
trim1.jpgtrim2.jpg


A digital trim sender I do not believe have the adjustment slot as it should be calibrated via software on the gauge.

[MikeCSr]

On my 60, the analog trim sender, where its mounted to the engine, one of the bolt holes should be slotted to allow for a little bit of adjustment. You cant do much about the gauges range of movement for running on plane or full tilt, but may be able to get enough adjustment so that the needle reads 0 when fully trimmed down.

pics aren't mine just some I found online to give a reference where to look for the sender.
trim1.jpgtrim2.jpg


A digital trim sender I do not believe have the adjustment slot as it should be calibrated via software on the gauge.

I do not have any software, nor have purchased that kit so i can see the guages on my Hummingbird... but I guess I have a digital sender on an analog gauge

My sender looks like the below.. the other night I trimmed all the way up.. took the bolts out and there is no way to slide the sensor around.. bad thing was that i lowered the motor with that sensor dangling.. luckily I did not lower all the way as without that sensor, the motor would not trim back up. I barely had room to get hand up there to loosely remount the sensor to trim back up haha
trimguagesenser.jpeg

[Goldstar225]

I have the same issue with the 115 on my boat, no way to adjust the sensor to give an accurate tilt/trim reading. I just ignore it and trim to the best trim by the attitude of the boat.

[azccj]

I do not have any software, nor have purchased that kit so i can see the guages on my Hummingbird... but I guess I have a digital sender on an analog gauge

My sender looks like the below.. the other night I trimmed all the way up.. took the bolts out and there is no way to slide the sensor around.. bad thing was that i lowered the motor with that sensor dangling.. luckily I did not lower all the way as without that sensor, the motor would not trim back up. I barely had room to get hand up there to loosely remount the sensor to trim back up haha
trimguagesenser.jpeg

I actually did that too. But there is a small relief valve that you can unscrew, which allows you to tilt the engine up manually.

[MikeCSr]

I freaked out for a half a minute thinking I broke something. Once I got the sensor back on and the engine went back up, I had to go grab a cold one and leave the boat alone for the rest of the day.

[Yousan56]

Just chiming in here. I have the same 2020 Tracker PT175TXW with the 75HP Mercury and my tilt gage operates exactly as yours. Amazing to see how many folks have this same issue. I also wish there was a way to correct this issue without going in the shop. Too bad there is no longer the slotted adjustment as in older models.

[reelfast]

Even my 2022 Tracker 195 with the Merc 150 is the same way

[MikeCSr]

One would think they woulda fixed the issue by now.
With our lakes as low as they are I really only need to see where outboard is without looking back so i can focus on whats ahead of me and just glance at guage when beaching boat as our docks are not floating or when in other shallow situations. One day ill put money into a merc monitor or something. Neat how this 18+ month thread coming back to life!!

[Yousan56]

I was able to fix this issue by following a fix on a 2017 Mercury 75HP that I read elsewhere and it worked fine. I don’t take credit except for sharing to help others. Here is what you do:

1. Run the trim all the way down
2. Make sure key is in off position
3. There are two orange wires under the cowl on the port side of the engine that have black rubber plugs on the end of them, remove the black plugs, then plug the two orange wires together. One is a male pin and the other a female. On my 75Hp the short wire had a tag with the word “Calibration” printed on it.
4. Turn on key but do not start
5. Run tilt up to desired limit
6. Unplug orange wires
7. Turn key off DONE!

[MikeCSr]

I was able to fix this issue by following a fix on a 2017 Mercury 75HP that I read elsewhere and it worked fine. I don’t take credit except for sharing to help others. Here is what you do:

1. Run the trim all the way down
2. Make sure key is in off position
3. There are two orange wires under the cowl on the port side of the engine that have black rubber plugs on the end of them, remove the black plugs, then plug the two orange wires together. One is a male pin and the other a female. On my 75Hp the short wire had a tag with the word “Calibration” printed on it.
4. Turn on key but do not start
5. Run tilt up to desired limit
6. Unplug orange wires
7. Turn key off DONE!

Thank you for that, I will look into doing that this weekend.
But I am not following what you mean by #5 "desired limit"
And after that, when the engine is trimmed down, it is at the zero line and the gauge actually goes up when you trim up?

[Yousan56]

#5 Basically you are setting your upper limit for your boat or in other words, what is the maximum you want to engine to lift up, just in case you do not want to travel to the upper extent.

After that, when I trimmed down or up the gage needle actually moved from down to up as it should, at least on my rig it did. And I was also able to lift the engine high enough to flip out the transom support bracket. Prior to this I was unable to lift the engine high enough to be able to flip out the bracket. I hope this works in your case also. Good Luck