Drain pump is spinning but not draining ballast

[13PacBlueRZ2]

Hi All, I’ve searched and read as much as I could find but nothing quite matches what I got going on...

Unit: 2013 RZ2 (jun manufacture date)

Issue: Right/driver side, front ballast bag. Fills no prob, when I switch to DRAIN on TT screen no water comes out.

What I’ve Tried/Tested:
-went in under the helm, the pump/impeller is spinning. I can feel it,
-popped the top off of the unit, turned it on to drain, and it started spinning,
-put it back together, turned on, spinning again but no water coming out,
-water is going out of drain hose to the pump/impeller as when I had the top off the unit water was flowing out of the hose, so I ended up draining the bag into the drain hole and using the bilge pump (d’oh!)

So the question is - what’s the deal? Do these things get air locks? Do I need to check/bleed the vents somehow? Do I need to move the bag around somehow? Is impeller work and despite it spinning, it’s not actually strong enough to “lift”/pump the water from the bag up to the thru hull hole?

Help!!!!
(Thank you in advance!)

[NG572]

Not sure if this is your problem but I had one bag (Port rear) that would not fill. Same thing, pump just spun but would not fill. I tightened all the hose clamps and I have never had that problem again. In other words, yes... they air lock. For my situation, air was getting into the line, so the pump couldn't work.

NG572

[13PacBlueRZ2]

NG - Thank you!
Quick question... in order to tighten / check all the hose clamps I’ll have to cut off the black heat/shrink wrap to get at the clamps. I assume that’s not an issue?

Now that you mention tightening the clamps some of the black shrink wrap was loose and felt wet (but it’s a boat so not 100% sure if they are wet from leaking or from other water from elsewhere). In terms of the airlock... did you check/tighten all the clamps or just the ones on the line where the pump is?)

Thank you! Much appreciated. This is my first post here, just picked this up on Thursday. Great community and resource here!

[KoolAid]

my guess it the inlet of the pump on the bag is in a position that has the vinyl of the bag blocking its path. take the black cover off the top of the bag box and see if the bag is caught in the inlet opening of the pump.

[13PacBlueRZ2]

Thanks KoolAid- I tussled the bag around a bit when I had things opened up before but not after it was emptied.
I’ll take another look.

K

[chpthril]

did you verify that the impeller is still secured to the pump drive shaft?

[13PacBlueRZ2]

Chptril - Yep, I took the top off, turned it on and the impeller was spinning.
Or do you mean something else?

Minor Update: I tried it again and by fluke it worked (once, but still not working consistently).
-Maybe like KoolAid suggested part of the bag is collapsing on the outlet hose? How would I correct that?

Sincere thanks for all the helpful responses - MUCH appreciated!

[13PacBlueRZ2]

Update: Things appear to be working. Might have been the bag collapsing on itself blocking the outlet hose, might have been an airlock, might have been a random Gremlin- don’t know for sure.

But thank you for the responses and help!
Happy boating.