Bilge question(s)

[bryancm]

So I had to replace the bilge the other day. The boat had and Attwood 500 in it, so I replaced with same pump. With battery Perko in the OFF position, the pump does not work at all. You cannot run it by turning the test knob on back of pump. With the Perko switch in the ALL position, the pump runs when turned on manually at the pump via the test knob on back of pump but doesn't run when the switch is flipped on the dash. The switch lights up as if it works, but does not run the bilge.

1. Any thoughts on that? I plan to go back tonight with a circuit tester and "mess with it" some.

2. The idea is that, even with Perko in the OFF position, the AUTO feature on the bilge should run. Correct?

Thanks!

B

[bryancm]

Well, turns out that my AUTO wire is from the Perko, not the battery. So, the Perko switch needs to be on for anything to work. Power did go to the dash switch, then it goes to the pole breakers on the right of the dash and that is where the problem was. The breaker does not work anymore. I just removed it for the time being and placed an inline 10A fuse and now the dash switch works fine. All is good. I guess if I wanted the AUTO to work without the Perko on, I would just need to wire straight from battery.

[chpthril]

Well, turns out that my AUTO wire is from the Perko, not the battery. So, the Perko switch needs to be on for anything to work. Power did go to the dash switch, then it goes to the pole breakers on the right of the dash and that is where the problem was. The breaker does not work anymore. I just removed it for the time being and placed an inline 10A fuse and now the dash switch works fine. All is good. I guess if I wanted the AUTO to work without the Perko on, I would just need to wire straight from battery.

Yes, it needs to be wired to directly to the battery. This should be the brown wire with red strip IIRC.

[Ewok]

Yes, it needs to be wired to directly to the battery. This should be the brown wire with red strip IIRC.

And it should have been wired that way from the factory, or whoever added the Perko switch.

[bryancm]

Thanks guys. It should be quite easy to make that change then. Over the last few days we have added a new, whisper quiet blower, new distributor cap and trigger wheel, new plugs and wires, fixed the stereo "engine noise", new bilge and just about finished with the steering cable. Time to enjoy the water so I might save that for a later date.