2 problems and potential solutions.

1. My ballast is self-filling. I have to manually shut the valve if I don't want my ballast completely full after motoring across the lake. I'm picking up some Irritrol valves tomorrow as I understand these eliminate the passive fill problem. Additionally I can't get my bags to consistently fill without driving around to force water in. I recently replaced the pump but the whole system is still not as dependable as I'd like. I had grand plans to do individual pumps/thru-hulls similar to what Berg and others have done, but do to limited bilge space and a poorly placed paddle-wheel, it is just not feasible for me. Is there anything else I can do to speed up and improve the function of this system.

2. I replaced my locker bags with 750s. Due to the poor function of my ballast system, I've never been able to fill them all the way. This weekend, I got them both a little over half full and they started emptying through the drain pumps. Could this be due to worn drain pumps (they are original to 2002)? Or is there something else I need to look for? I plan on replacing them anyway as I already had ordered 2 Tsunami 800s that I no longer have a use for. I am also adding vent lines as the original system didn't have them.