Macerator Woes

[locofisher]

I have a Jabsco macerator that I installed last July and it worked flawlessly until the other day. It quit working from one day to the next. I started with the routine troubleshooting making sure I had power to it. I check the connector with a multimeter and found out I do have power. I went ahead and cleaned the connector and reconnected it and still, nothing. I finally took the macerator out and hooked it up directly to my car battery and it worked as advertized. I've checked fuzes, switch, and decided to resintall it without a push pull type connector going with butt connectors instead....still nothing. Does anyone have any ideas? I have power to the pump but it won't work and when I hook it directly to the battery, it works. Could it be a ground? I figured though that power wouldn't register on the multimeter when touching the red and black wires with the corresponding multimeter leads if I had a bad ground.

 

[seabob4]

Re: Macerator Woes

Try this. Put a meter on your hot and ground to your macerator, then have a friend turn it on and observe your voltage...

 

[locofisher]

Re: Macerator Woes

Thanks for your reply. I did that and it turns out I have inbetween 12 and 13 volts. This is what puzzles me. I have power to it (according to the meter) but it still doesn't work when I activate the switch. When I took the macerator out and wired it directly to my car battery, it worked. Any advice welcomed....

 

[seabob4]

Re: Macerator Woes

Check the ground wire going to the pump for continuity with the ships grounding
system. Unless you already did that...

 

[Romeo21779]

Re: Macerator Woes

While you have power you may not have the current to run the pump.

Since you know that your pump works as it should, go over all of the wiring to make sure its not corroded/broken. Possibly just replace the wiring.

 

[locofisher]

Re: Macerator Woes

Thanks again for your replies. I talked to a seasoned boat owner today at lunch and he seems to think it could be the ground and/or for whatever reason not enough amps aren't getting to the pump. He suggested running an independant ground wire to see if that worked. If not, he suggested just running new wires from the switch panel back to the pump. I think those are my last two options. I'll post something after I get it running again.

 

[locofisher]

Re: Macerator Woes

Finally figured it out....I ran a seperate ground wire to the macerator and still nothing. So, I then ran another "hot" wire from the switch to the pump without removing panels, etc. It still did not work. I then used another wire between the fuse box to the hot side of the switch....and still nothing. At this point I said it can only be one of two things....the switch or fuze box...because I had already replaced the fuse twice just to make sure. I disconnected the wire I hastily made from the switch and connected it straight to the fuse box bypassing the switch. As soon as I connected the wire to the macerator pump, bam...it worked! It was the switch all along. I sure wish I would have looked at it first before taking the macerator pump out. It's going to be a real pain in the ***** to mount back under the deck. Thanks for your suggestions....

 

[seabob4]

Re: Macerator Woes

...I've checked fuzes, switch, and decided to...

If you hadn't said you checked the switch in your initial post, we probably could have figured it out a lot faster...