Live well blowing fuse

Good evening everyone, I just trade up and got rid of one bass boat headache for another.. This time I got a NITRO, I was going through the wiring because everything on the boat was diconnected..The young men that I brought the boat from was using it as a party boat with 15 inch sub's, I mean the works.. they disconnected everything to pull power from the control panel to their radio setup... I mean you could hear this boat coming from 2 miles away..after getting all that crap out of the boat..I got everything hooked up except for one livewell...On my control panel, I have lighted switches for everything...The light for the livewell switch does not turn on, but I know i'm getting power because it keeps blowing the fuse..I checked the wiring everything seems to connected..And I asumed if it was a bad pump, it just wouldn't come on and not blow the fuse..So I believe I have a short somewhere..Could someone give me a starting point to look for a short between the switch and the pump..

Re: Live well blowing fuse

There is a ground terminal on lighted switches. That terminal serves as the ground for the internal light and has nothing to do with the livewell pump. So make sure that terminal is connected to ground. If that ground wire was connected to the "LOAD" side of the switch you have no light, the live well doesn't work, you have a short and you blow fuses. The hot lead to the pump connects to the LOAD side of the switch. If it still doesn't work, then the pump may be stalled due to debris stuck in it or the impeller is stuck do to corroded bearings. Disconnect the pump and see if the fuse blows. If it does, you have a wiring problem. If not, the pump is shot. Verify that by connecting it directly to a battery.