My two rear ballasts fill no problem, but my front ballast is not filling. When I flip the front switch, the pump turns on just like when I turn on the right and left ballast. But no water fills the front sack. Any ideas of how to trouble shoot?
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My two rear ballasts fill no problem, but my front ballast is not filling. When I flip the front switch, the pump turns on just like when I turn on the right and left ballast. But no water fills the front sack. Any ideas of how to trouble shoot?
Bad or old ballast impeller that can't prime? Is the ball valve open? I'd inspect the ballast impeller and ensure ball valve is open. If the impeller looks bad or is missing fins then it won't prime (suck in water).
I was able to open the pump. The impeller looked fine. However, I was afraid to activate the pump while I had it open. Can you tell me how to check the ball valve? I am also wondering if the intake line is plugged, but I can’t figure out where to look to see if it is plugged with seaweed.
Here is any easy thing to do. Swap the front impeller with a known good rear impeller, see if the problem follows it. The ball valve is either open or closed. Follow the hose from the pump to the valve, they should be vertical is memory serves.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gyppy
Also, an impeller might look like it is good, when in fact it is bad and used up. New impellers are flexible and the ends are round. Used up ones will be stiffer and the ends will be squared off. Front pump impeller normally needs replaced faster than rears on 3 pump systems as they run for longer filling and draining.
That is a great easy idea of just swapping another impeller. Since the front ballast pump is the harder one to get to, the starboard pump would be easy to swap.
I will search for the ball valve. I am having trouble following the lines to find any valves - they tubing ends up hiding behind/under the engine or up in hard to see sections of the body.
Ok, so I swapped the impeller from the starboard over to the center. The center still failed to fill, but the starboard worked fine with the center impeller. So it is not the impeller. The next mission is to find this ball valve.
Just take your time and follow the lines. You may be able to look under the boat if on a trailer or lift to find the thru hulls and go from there. Verify the pump is actually spinning as well. The valve really should not be far from the pump. 1 side goes to the bag, the other to the valve.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gyppy
Was the pump working fine before during the season? The only reason I mentioned the ball valve being shut was if you bought the boat recently and this is your first time going through it. If that's the case then it's possible the previous owner or dealership closed the valve for winterization (or whatever reason). If the ballast pump was working fine and all the sudden is not then it's likely not the ball valve as those are just simple "gates" to allow water in and out of the thru hull fitting when the ballast pump is running.
What model of boat are we talking about? Most modern Moomba boats consist of a Center tank and a bag under the bow seats for the front ballast. The front bag fills from the over flow from the Center tank and won’t begin filling until the tank is pretty much full. When you first begin to fill the front you will hear the pump running but won’t see the bag filling for a few minutes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gyppy