need help with diagnosing bilge pump

stackz

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May 29, 2008
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it has recently come to my attention that carolina skiff does not use ANY corrosion protection on any of their wiring when they build boats that they know will be in salt water.

my 2014 sea skiff has about 25hrs on it total. it sat all last year due to the constant rain we got here. I'm "assuming" that due to all the humidity and the lack of corrosion protection that moisture was basically wreaking havoc on the wiring in the center console. All I know is that my bilge pump isnt working and the indicator light on the dash isnt coming on.

I filled the bilge with hose water and the key on to see if the float switch works which it does not apparently so maybe my basically new and barely ever used bilge pump is bad?

I'm still inclined to think its the switch as I have two other switches where the fuse is constantly tripped. I cant believe a bilge pump with maybe 20 minutes of run time and two live well pumps that combined have 3 minutes of run time (never used the live wells but did test them out first time I was on the water) are all bad. In the pictures, the bilge switch is second from right when looking at the exposed panel.

anyway. I took pics of the pump wiring and the panel wiring as the pump/float have brown and black wires and the float also has a brown/redstripe wire. I can find the brown and the brown/red wire at the switch but cant find the black wire to jump and check...I dont want to accidently burn something up that is otherwise good until proven bad. just looking for help.

also, how do I test the live well switches to see if maybe the fuse is bad or the switch is bad. I know something is shorting to cause the fuse to keep popping....

and yes, once I get everything fixed and tested I'm going nuts on the wiring with corrosion protection.
 

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titaniumneck

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Apr 11, 2016
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Sounds like you're right, it's a wiring problem. With fuse blowing and pump not working at all, sounds like you have a main or common power wire grounded out. You gonna have to go wire chasing, meaning inspecting as much wiring you can to see if one burnt up and grounded out. My father had a 2 year old bass tracker burn to the ground in drive way from hot wire grounding out before fuses. Just like a car, get the multi meter out and start at fuse box and work from there. Also double check grounds for conductivity.
 

stackz

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May 29, 2008
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well the fuse on the bilge pump itself is still fine and not tripped. the two fuses that are tripped are several switches over on the live wells. All of the switches share a common power wire that is fed from one to the next and the horn (which is after the bilge pump) works fine. I didnt get to check anything else after that....as it started raining again...lol.
 

alldodge

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This is the typical bilge pump wiring, so look for the inline fuse feeding the pump. Wire might come off the Bat switch or Bat (Bat switch in pic should be on other side or red dot). Need a meter to check power.

BilgePumpwithFloatSwitch-page-001.jpg
 

stackz

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looks like its finally time to get intimately familiar with the wiring on this boat sigh.
 

Mr.Stickney

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Oct 1, 2014
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I would "jump" momentary power to the manual side of the pump to see if it fires. That at least eliminates that. Is there a test button on the float switch? Mine has a little dial that you turn to raise the float switch as if there is water in the bilge. If you can get both of those circuits to work with power from a known good source then you know its a switch/ wiring problem.
 

stackz

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That's exactly what I did. Jumped it from the main feed and the pump came on so yay the wiring and the pump are good. Im just going to pull the switch out and replace it and recheck
 

alldodge

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Deleted sorry wrong thread
 
Last edited:

stackz

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May 29, 2008
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Well it wasn't the switch after all. Just the circuit breaker. Wasn't getting power across it. I hooked the power feed to another good breaker and switch worked just fine
 

stackz

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It's odd too. I'm assuming the circuit breaker is internally shorted as it isn't popped. Oh well.
 
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