Help, manual tilt on 1995 Johnson is stuck
Can anyone help me with this problem:
My dad's boat has a 1995 40hp Johnson with manual tilt and trim. There is also a small gas assist piston underneath the motor. It has a lever on the right hand side that you either flip forward to unlock and lift or lower the motor, or flip toward you to lock the motor in place. Last time he used his boat, he tilted the motor up, lowered it onto the trailering bracket, then flipped the trim lever to lock it in place. When we were getting ready to launch this past Sunday, I pushed the lever to the unlocked position and went to lift the motor off the trailering bracket and ....nothing.... The motor is stuck at about a 45 degree angle and only has about 4 inches of play up or down. It's just enough movement that I was able to get the trailering bracket off and use it and get the trailering bracket back on, but I just can't make it budge.
I've sprayed some lubricant around the lever and have tugged on the motor while flipping the lever back and forth hoping the locking pin was just stuck, but that hasn't yielded any results. Is anyone here familiar with my problem, or can at least visualize it and maybe help me troubleshoot it? My dad is planning on taking his boat to Minnesota in 3 weeks and I'd like to try to have it working again for him.