Bayliner fish well

[TrophyFisher]

I just inherited a 1996 18 foot Bayliner Trophy. The pump in the fish well was not working so I replaced the cartridge with a similar or identical 500 gph Johnson. I cleaned the base and the tube. The pump turns but does not pump water. My question- is the pump supposed to pump water out of the well as I think or is it supposed to pump water into the well? If in to the well, I don't see a thru the hull fitting as an inlet. Anybody familar with this?

[Silvertip]

Livewells drain by gravity -- out the hole in the bottom of the tank and through a hose to a through hull fitting at the transom. Water gets into the tank from the pump. Water gets to the pump through another through hull fitting at the transom. It is then pumped into the tank via another hose. The spray bar acts an aerator when the pump is running. The tank will have an overflow near the top of the tank, or it will have a standpipe that pushes into the drain hole. If you don't know what a stand pipe is, remove the lid from the tank on your toilet. That pipe in the middle is a stand pipe. If the water gets too high it runs into the pipe and into the toilet bowl and out the drain. Same principle in the boat.

[TrophyFisher]

Thanks for the good info unfortunately Bayliner muat have a simplier sefinirion for fishwell. There is no drain plug or other features. Only a pump connected to a tube exiting high in the well wall. I don't know where it exists . I either somehow missing a thru the hull fitting ( not iikely) or it pumps
Into the bilge. I guess some in depth digging is in order unless someone with a similar model joins in.

[Fireman431]

livewell setup.jpg

Is the hole in the bottom of your livewell or up near the top. If it's near the top, that's for incoming water. On the bottom? That's for outgoing water.

If it's on the bottom, there should be a plastic tube that goes in there (the standpipe) so the water drains out when it reaches that level. Look under the lip of the livewell and you'll probably see another fitting for incoming water. There should be a small plastic valve on it that controls the volume of water coming in, and you match that to the amount draining out. This way, the water is constantly refreshed and aerated.

As far as it not pulling water in, it has probably lost it's prime (if you can hear it running). It is a small centrifugal pump and they really can't prime themselves very well. To see if it's working, put it in the water and turn the pump on. Place a small section of tube on the discharge inlet and act like you're siphoning gas. This will pull the water up and prime the pump.

FIRST>>> check in the bilge thru the inspection hatch and make sure that the thru hull fitting has the valve open. The handle will be inline with the valve if open and across the valve if closed.

[TrophyFisher]

Thank you Fireman431 your answer indirectly helped me solve the problem. After looking some more I did find a thru the hull fitting near the fishwell,well above the water line. Since there is only one tube leaving the fishwell and it exits high and since the pump is located at the lowest end of the well, it became obvious that the pump was there to pump water out. Your comment about losing its prime made me try to fill the tube from the outside with a hose. When that didn't work, I remembered that the bildge pump had its outlet fitting plugged by an insects nest. Sure enough after I fished a wire thru the fitting and up the tube, I hit something similar. The pump worked fine after clearing the stuff out. It seems that you have to manually put water into the fish well and te pump only drains the well. My Dad mentioned that people usually just keep their catch on ice in the well and use the pump to empty the melted ice. Thanks again

[Fireman431]

Glad it all worked out. Thanks for the update.

[NYBo]

That doesn't sound like any factory setup I've ever seen.

[TrophyFisher]

My Dad was the original owner and never modified anything in the boat. I wouldn't even call it a fish well if the toggle switch wasn't labeled like that. Its more of a storage box with a pump out drain. I guess if you keep the fish you catch in it (on ice or in some water, you can drain it when the day is over. I guess they didn't drain it into the bilge since you wouldn't want that "soup" in your bilge.

[Fireman431]

Any fishwell, live well, storage box, or cooler built into a boat (which has a drain), will drain into a tube that is plumbed to a thru hull fitting. Generally speaking, I have never seen one that drains directly in to the bilge. Boat builders, as a rule, don't want water getting into a bilge on purpose. If you have on draining into a bilge, it was either modified or has something wrong with it.

...now...let all the millions of boaters whose wells drain into the bilge start posting and calling me names...

[TrophyFisher]

Any fishwell, live well, storage box, or cooler built into a boat (which has a drain), will drain into a tube that is plumbed to a thru hull fitting. Generally speaking, I have never seen one that drains directly in to the bilge. Boat builders, as a rule, don't want water getting into a bilge on purpose. If you have on draining into a bilge, it was either modified or has something wrong with it.

...now...let all the millions of boaters whose wells drain into the bilge start posting and calling me names...

Fireman431:
I must not have been clear in my reply to NYbo who said my set up didn't sound like any factory set up he 's heard of. My pump empties the fishwell to outside the boat via a thru the hull fitting like I mentioned earlier, and thanks to you it works now. I only mentioned the bilge because on my Bayliner, it seems everything else drains into it so it wouldn't surprise me if Bayliner had drained the fishwell into it as well. Of course draining the fishwell into the bilge would be a horrible idea, but Bayliner has my deck scuppers draining into the bilge so like I said it wouldn't surprise me if they did something else stupid also. On my first trip home from the boat ramp after my father gave me the boat it started to pour down rain (the bilge pump was broken but I didn't realize that this would be an immediate problem). By the time I reached my boat lift about 15 minutes later, the entire bilge was flooded to the point that there was water in the cuddy cabin. Luckily it didn't sink. I replaced the bilge pump, fuse, automatic float, and fishwell pump immediately. It seems that the scuppers and deck are below the water line so draining them thru the hull would be impossible. Oh well lessons learned.

[Fireman431]

Thanks for the clarification. Is there any way to modify the scuppers so they drain overboard instead of into the bilge?

P.S. Can you imagine the smell of your boat after being stored for the winter if your fishwell emptied into the bilge?

[TrophyFisher]

Thanks for the clarification. Is there any way to modify the scuppers so they drain overboard instead of into the bilge?

P.S. Can you imagine the smell of your boat after being stored for the winter if your fishwell emptied into the bilge?

I wish there was, but if I'm right, the deck is lower than the waterline so that rules a direct drain out. Right now the scuppers (one on port and one starboard) drain into two smaller compartments which drain from the bottom directly to the bilge. I could plug up the drains of these compartments (which are between the deck and hull with the transom to the rear) and install a pump in each to pump the water out thru a hull fitting, but that seems like a lot of pumps for a small boat, plus I don't know if it would help much. One of the bad things about draining the scuppers into the bilge is that the bilge is connected to a compartment under the cuddy cabin's deck (sole). The geometry of the boat (or maybe its how its sitting on the boat lift-(level)) lets the bilge water flow into the area between the cabin's deck and hull. Bayliners are famous for rotting from the inside out. My first job after fixing the pumps was to replace this deck ($300 of fiberglass, wood and carpet) since it had turned to mush. I am thinking about sealing this compartment off from the bilge since it would be a rare occasion for water to get into the cabin and need to be drained out. By the way, I'm lucky to have it on a boat lift so that I can take the main plug out and let the boat drain when not in use. It seems there have been a lot of repairs to a boat I've had for a month, which my Dad said was in perfect condition. I think I've pretty much fixed all of these little problems except for the fuel gage and speedo but that's for another thread or two.