bilge pump wiring ghost

[dean1953]

I do know some wiring. But this has got me! Pump worked before putting into water. Took on some water, but pump did not work. Got home and started checking. Well it blew 5 amp. fuse coming off batt. switch. Horn, assc., etc. nothing working. replaced fuse, every thing fine. BUT, now my bilge pump runs all the time. Even with the batt. switch turned off. The light on the bilge pump stays on, with batt. sw. off. had to disconnect plug to pump to keep from running, also unplug switch. cannot understand how pump can run with main batt. sw. turned off?

 

[gm280]

dean, you are painting a picture of things running without having power applied. And that CAN"T happen. So you do have power going to things that you are not a where of. So it is time to trace those wires to their source. JMHO!

 

[alldodge]

I do know some wiring. But this has got me! Pump worked before putting into water. Took on some water, but pump did not work. Got home and started checking. Well it blew 5 amp. fuse coming off batt. switch. Horn, assc., etc. nothing working. replaced fuse, every thing fine. BUT, now my bilge pump runs all the time. Even with the batt. switch turned off. The light on the bilge pump stays on, with batt. sw. off. had to disconnect plug to pump to keep from running, also unplug switch. cannot understand how pump can run with main batt. sw. turned off?[/QUOTE]

My comments are being made based on the bilge pump was working correctly and no wiring changes have been made prior to the current issue.

The bilge pump is the one item which must be connected directly to the battery, and it appears your is, so don't change it. The reason your pump is running is either your float switch is stuck in the ON position, or the float switch has shorted closed.

Now the bilge pump should not be supplying power to anything except the pump. Have you done any rewiring anywhere?

 

[GA_Boater]

What AllDodge said.

It's possible when you got some water, it dislodged some debris. Depending on what type of float switch you have, the junk could be holding the float arm up and arm isn't dropping to turn the pump off. If the pump wiring is done correctly, when the float switch is active, the bilge pump light on the dash will be lit to tell you have a running pump.

The pump should be wired directly to the battery or if wired to the battery switch, to the always "hot" feed from the battery. Power to the pump should never be a switched power source and nothing else should be powered by the fused power to the pump.

 

[sam am I]

Yup ^^^^^^, float switch path is keeping it on, the (float is stuck or bad). Not sure what took out the fuse, perhaps it got locked up with the same crap that jammed the float but is also in the impeller as well.

Yours is/appears wired like this (mine is wired like it as well, this is a Mako's btw, some are factory wired this way, mine was) and is why you're able to shut off the power to the pump's instrument panel switch (the manual override feed) with the main battery disconnect switch and still have a second (auto feed) power source even with the main battery disconnect switch off.

It's also why the dash light (not drawn) is staying on as well (the buld is wired/powered on the "+" side of the pump and can be lit up by either of the two separate power paths)

 

[dean1953]

Thanks Sam for the diagram, helped.10-4 to everyone that posted. Makes since now. Will pull the centrifugal pump a.m. Guess it ran dry for so long it blew the fuse? Replaced the auto switch few months ago, because of a crack in float. It stopped working a month ago. Makes since that something got sucked into the centrifugal pump and float is stuck. Thanks again, Dean

 

[NYBo]

Your main fuse should be something like 25 amps, not 5.