auto bilge pump will not shut off

[Wyomingman]

I have a 2002 Lund that has both an automatic bilge pump and a manuel bilge pump. I had the boat out yesterday and the automatic bilge pump would not shut off even though there was no water in the bottom of the boat and it was pumping nothing out. I had to disconnect the starting battery just to get it to shut off.

Any ideas on what the problem is with this???

 

[burp]

Re: auto bilge pump will not shut off

Check for debris around the float switch which would restrict the movement of the float. Or the float swich could just be stuck. Both are an easy fix if you have access to the blige pump as the float switch is usually built into the bilge pump.

 

[scoutabout]

Re: auto bilge pump will not shut off

I had that happen last season with a Rule automatic bilge pump. It has a strange float that moves up and down in a seperate chamber on the side of the pump. There's no mechanical connection to the pump switch but rather works by either a magnet inside the float which trips the switch or metal inside that trips a magnet inside the pump.

Anyway, it moved freely up and down but once triggering the pump it would not shut off. I ended up replacing the entire pump which solved the problem.

As I recall, the automatic circuit had its own dedicated inline fuse which I pulled to get it to stop running on automatic. It didn't affect the manual operation but obviously you don't want to disable the auto feature if your boat lives in the water all season.

 

[capt sam]

Re: auto bilge pump will not shut off

9 out of 10 times, debris keeps it from dropping back down and shutting off, pull it off and check it.