Hi,
Last year I installed 3 johnson Ultra Ballast pumps. They were only used twice (one to fill the sacs, and one to empty). I got a new job in the beginning of the summer and basically the boat returned to the trailer.
This year, i've been working on the electric installation of the boat and when the time came to test the pumps, one of them had gone bananas. Drop dead. Wired it directly to the battery and nothing... The 1 year warranty had also gone... So I decided to open it up and try to figure out the problem. The circuit is very simple. The only electronic component was a 15uF non-polarized electrolitic capacitor wired at the input. It was broken. I removed it and voilá, the pump came back from the dead. After that I soldered a similar capacitor, which I assume is just there to serve as source of current for peeks.
Now, why did this happen? Well I can't really say, but there was signs of water inside the motor. I had installed the pumps with the head up, and probably there was some water inside during the winter which slowly passed through the o-ring and penetrated the motor. In theory, I don't think this could really damage the capacitor but anyways, two lessons learned:
1 - Don't throw away your damaged pump
2 - install it with the head down.
IMG_1019.JPG
Last year I installed 3 johnson Ultra Ballast pumps. They were only used twice (one to fill the sacs, and one to empty). I got a new job in the beginning of the summer and basically the boat returned to the trailer.
This year, i've been working on the electric installation of the boat and when the time came to test the pumps, one of them had gone bananas. Drop dead. Wired it directly to the battery and nothing... The 1 year warranty had also gone... So I decided to open it up and try to figure out the problem. The circuit is very simple. The only electronic component was a 15uF non-polarized electrolitic capacitor wired at the input. It was broken. I removed it and voilá, the pump came back from the dead. After that I soldered a similar capacitor, which I assume is just there to serve as source of current for peeks.
Now, why did this happen? Well I can't really say, but there was signs of water inside the motor. I had installed the pumps with the head up, and probably there was some water inside during the winter which slowly passed through the o-ring and penetrated the motor. In theory, I don't think this could really damage the capacitor but anyways, two lessons learned:
1 - Don't throw away your damaged pump
2 - install it with the head down.
IMG_1019.JPG
Comment