Bilge Pump

[mikegmi2]

When I bought my boat home after buying it, I started testing everything out, including the bilge...it worked fine as I could hear it run and could hear water being pumped onto my driveway.

Today I tried turning it on and got nothing. I noticed there was water in the bilge due to the heavy rain we got the past 2 days here...and wanted to pump some of it out.

Again i'm a new boat owner, so am I missing something simple here? Does a bilge only run if the engine has been run recently? Is there like an accessory switch I maybe turned off that has to be on for the bilge to run?

I just fine it hard to believe the bilge broke or shorted out since 4 days ago when I bought the boat home...

 

[NYBo]

Re: Bilge Pump

Blown fuse or junk in the bilge jammed the impeller.

However, you shouldn't need to run the bilge pump to get rid of rainwater with the boat sitting in the driveway! The boat should be bow-up with the transom plug removed.

 

[mikegmi2]

Re: Bilge Pump

Ill check the fuses tonight. Are all fuses usually contained behind the gauge panel? Or are some fuses located in other places, like inside the engine compartment?

Also, are these fuses the same kind of fuses used in automotive applications...so you can get them at any auto parts store...or will they be different?

 

[Georgesalmon]

Re: Bilge Pump

maybe you don't have enough water to activate the float switch?

 

[mikegmi2]

Re: Bilge Pump

maybe you don't have enough water to activate the float switch?

That's a good thought. Actually, now that I think more, perhaps i let too much water get into the bilge from all the rain and this shorted out a connection to the bilge?

Because the only changes from Monday when it was working until yesterday was it wasnt working was:

-me switching wire harnesses (switched volt gauge harness with temp gauge harness...they were incorrectly plugged into the wrong harnesses)

- me taking lots of photos behind the gauge panel (maybe I bumped a harness or wire loose)

- it rained twice, and i didnt have the plug pulled so there was for sure water in the bilge (and now that I think more...I switched the red switch on my throttle from RUN to OFF...which I believe cuts power to the bilge?) I didnt know if leaving the switch in the RUN position would drain the battery...

 

[NYBo]

Re: Bilge Pump

Your bilge pump shouldn't be connected through the ignition circuit. There could be a an inline fuse for the pump, but the manual circit would most likely be fused at the panel.

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: Bilge Pump

theres normally a switch for the bilge pump that says something like auto/manual. If its in auto it will work of the float switch and it does have a to get a few inches deep to come on. If you switch to manual then it should come on. On some boats theres also a master switch that will shut down all pumps etc that are in manual that switch has to be one for the others to work (e.g. the lights etc)

p.s the pump was designed to be in a wet area so its not bothered if its under water and 12v doesn't get to upset with being under water either so i do not think that the bilge level will have upset it. Leave the boat nose high and plug out then the rain just runs out.

 

[mikegmi2]

Re: Bilge Pump

Although I don't know exactly what I did to fix it, it works fine now.

Basically I started testing all the harnesses for 12V with my multimeter, unplugging harnesses, plugging them back in...there's 3 wires, black, brown, and brown/w red stripe. Brown was 0V, and Brown/w red stripe was 12.3V. In the process of everything, I also turned this box off and on again:


Then at one point I turned the bilge switch on and noticed the light on the switch was lighting up now (it hadnt been)! Went back and plugged all the harnesses back in and boom, pump was working again.

Are the little white buttons fuses? Or small breakers? They say "push to reset" around the black ring, and you can unscrew the black ring...but I saw no way to pull the white part out...I wanted to pull one out to see if there was a fuse in there but couldn't get one out...and gave up after the pump was working again (if it ain't broke...).

Anyhow I probably pressed them all in...but there was like a millimeter of play when pushing them in...and I didn't feel any clicking or snapping like I am used to feeling when resetting a breaker or fuse.

It's working though, so I am happy.

Also the temp gauge I fixed earlier this week is working perfect...got up to around 160 deg and stayed there while I was cruising around this weekend.

 

[indybleck]

Re: Bilge Pump

Those are small breakers if they are out they need to be reset