I am brand new to owning boats,...

[Steamboat]

I am brand new to owning boats, that being said, I bought an 08 230 Sun Deck, now I find the speedometer and trim indicator don’t work. Where to start?  Thanks, Dan. 

[wingless]

Welcome to the forum.

Good luck w/ your new boat.

Was the Owner's Manual provided when the boat was purchased? If so, it has documentation of that specific boat and those specific systems.

The boat was built w/ systems from other manufacturers, such as Bennett for the trim tabs, so there may be a Bennett manual in the boat documentation.

Figure out who made the broken systems and examine the manufacturer's documentation.

Provide that info here if there are questions.

[Scott3262]

The Speedo Inlet on the outdrive maybe stopped up you can google that part and find videos on a quick fix. If the backlight isn’t working it could be corrosion on the back at the electrical contact points. A volt meter would tell you more. The trim gauge could be a corroded contact as well. This is assuming the actual tilt does perform as normal.

[t-bone]

I had the same problem when I bought my ‘04 SD. For god knows what reason, the trim sensor wires that come in from the outdrive had been cut. They are two double wires, they looks like the electrical wires from a household lamp. Cables and connections seem to have been 75% of all of my used-boat woes.

[Captain_K]

On the transom side of the outdrive, along that sharp edge, somewhere above the propellor gear box is a small inlet hole that is prone to getting gunk caught in it...the water that flows through that small hole powers the speedometer. I had my speedometer stop working (while the RPM gauge continued to work), and all I did was take a small hex screwdriver and cleaned that hole out and blew some water into it. The next time we went out, the speedometer worked fine. The trim indicator is something else-we have a 185 Sport with no trim tabs and only the main trim indicator...so, I can't help you with that.

[Steamboat]

Thanks everyone, trim indicator is bad, will replace later. The speedometer, watched a YouTube video and had a very small pin hole in the pick up tube, but they showed him using a 3/16 drill bit (not on the drill) to clean out hole on lower unit, well I tried that and it was still plugged. He had about a 3 inch bit, me too, but it wasn’t until I used a wire hanger, it went in about 5 inches. It works now!

[Captain_K]

Good deal-that’s what happened with me, too, so I’m glad that worked for you!