Float Switch and Accessories problem

[Jmesser1980]

Hello Everyone,

I'm not the best at wiring and had a question for you fine folks.

My dad has a center console boat that he puts around on, the Bilge pump/ float switch started acting up this year. When we put it away last year all worked fine.

I believe the float switch is bad and needs to be replaced, the problem I am seeing and what I do not understand is when the power switch is turned on and I turn on the Bilge Pump to manually pump the water the pump does not turn on unless the float switch is turned off, all the accessories (Lights, Horn etc.) also do not work unless the float switch is turned off.
I'm not the best with wiring but to me I would think the float switch and bilge would be separate from all of the other accessories.

I'm pretty sure it is a bad float switch but am now starting to wonder if the guys at Bass Pro where my dad bought the boat and had the float switch installed did something in-correct when wiring the float switch in.

There is a Red wire that runs from the battery with an in-line fuse to the float switch then there is 2 wires running out of the float switch one goes to the bilge pump, not sure where the other goes to.

Any suggestions is greatly appreciated.

 

[cptbill]

Yea they should be separate and the float switch should be a direct wire to the batt. so that it can turn on even if the batts. are not on. Sounds like you got a ground problem or a switch problem or both

 

[cptbill]

There should be 3 wires on the float switch, batt. power all the time, power from the switch and ground

 

[garbageguy]

Hello Everyone,

...all the accessories (Lights, Horn etc.) also do not work unless the float switch is turned off..

How do you turn off the float switch? That description may help us know what's going on

 

[Jmesser1980]

How do you turn off the float switch? That description may help us know what's going on

Currently we are unhooking the red positive wire from the battery, if we leave that on the bilge pump constantly runs.

If memory serves me correctly when it was working properly we the bilge would kick on when the float switch was activated, and we could also manually turn the bilge on if the power switch was on and we turned the bilge switch on.