05 22v bilge wiring

[kmkramer71]

recently we are now in a wet slip. I think my automatic bilge is not working. Should the automatic wire be wired to 1 of my batteries or somewhere on the perko battery switch? I've read there is suppose to be an inline fuse. my boat has always had a leak and no one seems to be able to fix it completely so now that I'm in a slip I need this to work for peace of mind.

[boardman74]

You are probably just going to have to trace the issue like any other. I'd first test for power at your float switch. The floats do go bad. If you don't have power there your going to have to work upstream. If you have power at the float see if you can get power out the other side to the pump. You can usually reach under the float to lift it to activate the switch. You could have at least 5-6 problems preventing it from working: Not hooked up, fuse, wiring, float, pump, etc. You are going to have to get in there and do some trouble shooting.

[chpthril]

The automatic side of the bilge should be wired to the battery side of the switch, not the boat side. Otherwise, its disconnected from the battery when the switch is off. Tige typically connects it to the battery B+ stud.

IIRC, Tige was using a 3-wire pump with internal float. If so, there will be a black thats ground, solid a brown which is the manual bilge switched B+ from the helm and then a brown/red thats the constant B+ from the battery. I may have those 2 browns reversed. If you check for voltage on both and have voltage on neither, flip the switch on the dash and check again. You may have to cut those where they splice into the boat harness because I think when the manual switch is on, you may get 12V out of the pump on the other wire, so dont let it trick you.

If you have a 2 wire pump with external float, fallow boardman's advice. You should have voltage on one side of the float. Doesnt matter witch wire on the float has voltage as the switch is just a simple open/closed. SO as long as one side is connected to the battery, the pump will run if the float is lifted and it good. Once lifted, if the pump doesnt run, check for voltage on the other wire out of the float.

[kmkramer71]

The bilge does work when I have the batteries on. I can used the manual mode and the automatic then works. So I think I just need to trace the constant on and find/check the fuse. Hopefully will get to that today.

[kmkramer71]

update

I spent the morning looking into the wiring. The bilge is a rule 500gph with 3 wires (blk,brn,brn/wh). My panel switch is just a 2 position (auto/off) . When I first arrived, lots of water in the bilge.
Here was my process:

1. Batteries on, panel switch auto
bilge fires up immediately and I let it run for a while while I start tracing wires. I notice that the water stops coming out but the pump never turns off.

2. Batteries off, panel switch off
Bilge wiring is:
BLK->BLK
BRN->BRN1 (labeled bilge auto) traced to battery with fuse
BRN/WH->BRN2

voltage across BLK - BRN1 12.5v
voltage across BLK - BRN2 0v

3. Batteries on, panel switch on
voltage across BLK - BRN1 12.5v
voltage across BLK - BRN2 12.5v

4. Batteries off, panel switch off
I swapped the BRN from bilge pump and connected it to BRN1 and the pump came on automatically but again would never shut off.

5. Now wired back the way it was.

So to me it seems my wiring was wrong and that my float in the pump is bad unless I’m not waiting long enough for it to cut off. If you guys agree I need to find out how to remove the old one. I could not find any external screws unless you have to remove the top and screw in from the bottom. Do I need to use any caulk on the new screws? Also a replacement recommendation would be great.