Bilge Pump "failure". Upgrade in process...

[trayson]

So, it appeared I had a bilge pump failure. I was out on Sunday and my bilge pump would not shut off. It would run and run and run.

I currently have a Attwood Sahara 500 that has the integrated float switch that looks like this:


To get the pump to shut down, I unplugged the wire harness leading to it. Last night I finally took a look at it and found my problem. The pump is designed so that the darker portion is mounted to the hull, and the white portion snaps into it. On my boat, the dark portion was epoxied to the hull. That epoxy had failed and the pump was flopping around loose in my bilge and tipped over on its side. The float switch was stuck on and since the pump was on its side, the switch wouldn't shut it off.

Before really looking into the problem, I'd already decided to upgrade. I've never really been a fan of bilge pumps with float switches, and in my last boat I tried the Attwood Digital Bilge Pump switch. So that was the direction I'd planned on heading.

Additionally, I have Tsunami T1200 aerator pumps for my ballast system, so it made some sense to me to have that same pump as my bilge pump. If worse came to worse, 1 pump motor could be swapped to any of my 7 different T1200 pumps.

Is having a 1200 GPH bilge pump overkill in a 23' wakeboard boat? YEP! But why not.

The switch and pump are separate. The switch I used in my last boat and also I'm using it to trigger my LED Runway lights on my trailer. It has no moving parts, and I'm a fan of that concept.


The pump again is a bit of overkill, to the point that it has a 1 1/8" outlet. My bilge line is 3/4" and goes to a 3/4" thru hull. I'm just going to run a short section of 1 1/8" line and than use a barbed reducer to tap it into my existing 3/4" hose. Who knows, I might have some fun with how far water will shoot out the thru hull from the bilge pump now.




Today both my Attwood digital switch and T1200 bilge pump will arrive via Amazon Prime. So I'll get them wired up and install them tonight...

[trayson]

Got my new pump and switch yesterday. The upgrade didn't go nearly as smooth as I had hoped.

Screwing down the pump base was near impossible, even with the bendy attachment on my cordless impact with the pump basically under the engine and shielded by the alternator. I made things harder on myself for going with the T1200 with a 1 1/8" output instead of just going with a T800 with a 3/4" outlet.

Then once I FINALLY got the 3 screws in, I realized the orientation of the hose outlet was such that it was pointing straight at the stringer under the engine mount. Anyway, I put in a 90 degree bend, but even then, I had to shorten the elbow by hacking off plastic from the elbow and hose. I got it as tight as I could and it was still a bitch to get the pump rotated in the mount to lock into place. But I sure wasn't going to try to move the pump mounting base after fighting with those 3 screws.

After that I messed with the hoses and somehow whacked myself in the eye with the end of the 3/4" hose. Hurt so bad that I actually took 1/2 the day off from work today so I could sleep it off and keep my eye closed.

So finally everything was set and then I plugged in the electrical and the pump powered up—and wouldn’t stop. WTF?!?!? I hooked up black to black, brown to brown, and brown with white stripe to red. The pump I took out was Attwood and the pump and switch I was putting in were Attwood. So I can’t see why my wiring wasn’t right. So I got out my test light and after jabbing my finger with the probe, I found out what leads were constant power and which one was operated by the bilge switch on the dash. So in the end, I had to cut the two wires and reverse them. Now it’s all wired up and done. But it was a ZILLION times harder than it should have been. I'm not sure why I do this to myself.

[mmandley]

Got my new pump and switch yesterday. The upgrade didn't go nearly as smooth as I had hoped.

Screwing down the pump base was near impossible, even with the bendy attachment on my cordless impact with the pump basically under the engine and shielded by the alternator. I made things harder on myself for going with the T1200 with a 1 1/8" output instead of just going with a T800 with a 3/4" outlet.

Then once I FINALLY got the 3 screws in, I realized the orientation of the hose outlet was such that it was pointing straight at the stringer under the engine mount. Anyway, I put in a 90 degree bend, but even then, I had to shorten the elbow by hacking off plastic from the elbow and hose. I got it as tight as I could and it was still a bitch to get the pump rotated in the mount to lock into place. But I sure wasn't going to try to move the pump mounting base after fighting with those 3 screws.

After that I messed with the hoses and somehow whacked myself in the eye with the end of the 3/4" hose. Hurt so bad that I actually took 1/2 the day off from work today so I could sleep it off and keep my eye closed.

So finally everything was set and then I plugged in the electrical and the pump powered up—and wouldn’t stop. WTF?!?!? I hooked up black to black, brown to brown, and brown with white stripe to red. The pump I took out was Attwood and the pump and switch I was putting in were Attwood. So I can’t see why my wiring wasn’t right. So I got out my test light and after jabbing my finger with the probe, I found out what leads were constant power and which one was operated by the bilge switch on the dash. So in the end, I had to cut the two wires and reverse them. Now it’s all wired up and done. But it was a ZILLION times harder than it should have been. I'm not sure why I do this to myself.

Sounds like someone need to be wearing safety glasses.

[trayson]

Sounds like someone need to be wearing safety glasses.

Yeah, because bilge pump hose flying up and smacking you in the eye happens all the time!

Sheesh, what a PITA. But at least it's done. I hope to have to touch that bilge pump again around NEVER.

[mmandley]

I understand what you mean by thinking it wouldn't happen, but after wearing safety glasses for 12 years on the job, I find myself wearing them a lot more at home on projects. Its when you don't think about them things really happen.

I understand there will be times random things happen and you can't expect that but in the case of working on the boat and being in tight quarters messing with things while you are bent over or laying on the floor with you face in the middle of the action, wear those glasses LOL

[trayson]

Yeah, they would have helped on this one for sure.