How to Adjust Outboard Motor Pitch Pins

Pitch pins are metal pins that hold outboard motors at an angle to the transoms of boats. A pitch pin fits into one of five holes on a vertical bracket on the motor. The angle between the boat and the motor is called pitch. It influences how the boat travels through the water, whether its front -- or bow -- is up or down. Usually pitch pins are used only on the smallest outboard motors.

Instructions

    • 1

      Grasp the motor's tiller handle, the long lever that protrudes from the front of the motor, containing the original equipment manufacturer's throttle control. Pull the pitch pin -- the long pin protruding from the pitch adjustment plate, the vertical, triangular plate on the outboard's swivel bracket -- the bracket that allows the motor to turn from side-to-side.

    • 2

      Push down on the motor's tiller handle as a lever to raise motor from the pitch pin. Pull the pitch pin from the bracket. Push down on the handle to increase the pitch or ease the handle upward to decrease the pitch.

    • 3

      Stop moving the motor upward or downward when the motor is at the angle you desire and one of the holes in the pitch plate is aligned with the pitch-pin hole in the swivel bracket. Push the pitch pin back through the now-aligned holes in the pitch adjustment plate and swivel bracket.