Engine shutoff during ballast fill

[Alexander Bowen]

I have a Moomba mobius LSV (2005). And it has the original gravity 3 system, whenever I fill the ballast, occasionally the whole boat will shut off including all electrical, after about 3-5 mins it will have power come back on and you can start the motor. I know it’s not a lot of detail, but any ideas on what causes that? I looked at my ballast system and drew a rough diagram although I didn’t trace all the wiring. I want to replace the whole thing and intend to, but wasn’t sure if there was an easy fix to prevent this from happening.





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[Stazi]

Battery and/or alternator is toast.


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[sandm]

I was going to guess bad main ground?

does it only do it when filling ballast? does it have any issues starting? doesn't do it when stereo is cranked?

[Stazi]

Could be bad grounds or corroded battery terminals too. highly doubtful it’s anything to do with the pumps. If they were shorting, they’d pop breakers/fuses for the ballast circuit - not shut the entire boat down.


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[Alexander Bowen]

It ONLY does it when filling ballast, not at any other time, emptying it doesn’t do it, even when having the stereo on, and charging my phone from the cigarette lighter it doesn’t do it. I was wondering if the electronic valves could be causing a short? But wouldn’t that just flip a fuse or breaker for the ballast system rather than the entire boat?


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[Stazi]

It ONLY does it when filling ballast, not at any other time, emptying it doesn’t do it, even when having the stereo on, and charging my phone from the cigarette lighter it doesn’t do it. I was wondering if the electronic valves could be causing a short? But wouldn’t that just flip a fuse or breaker for the ballast system rather than the entire boat?


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I would think the breaker would pop.

One thing to note though; you ballast system has ONE pump to fill, but 3 different pumps for emptying. It could be the fill pump, but again I would think excessive current draw to overcome low voltage would trip the ballast breaker.


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[sandm]

provided there is a breaker involved. I found when working on my old '06 supra there were a few electrical shortcuts taken- not to mention he could have a monday/friday build that someone just hooked up a wire wrong or didn't secure properly.

I'd trace the wiring on the fill pump and valves back to see where it goes and ensure it's all tidy and check grounding from the battery(s) and engine ground.
my guess is still a bad ground or wire short somewhere.

[Alexander Bowen]

I will trace the wiring and see if a circuit breaker is installed, I have a feeling there isn’t one... any ideas on what size of breaker to throw in there? Like I said I want to replace the whole system and intend to; but I just want to make it safe right now


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[sandm]

once you have it traced down and know the root cause, I'd reach out to MLA on here for his advice. he's one of the resident go-to guys for ballast. he will be able to design you a new system and ship you all the pieces/parts to install(and his customer service is second to none if you have an issue with install on a late saturday night). he will have a recommendation on what will work with a new system so you are not buying extra parts down the road.

good luck.

[Alexander Bowen]

Well, I have come up with a hypothesis to what could be causing my issues with the boat shutting off.

I have three images below that help to explain and i tried to put text on them to help in understanding them. I think the ballast pump is fed off the ignition. Is this normal? Also it appears that the ignition system has a smaller gauge wire feeding it, so I think its just too much draw for that one small wire and its flipping the breaker. I remember the first time the boat shut off (freaked me out), that eventually i pushed the ignition breaker button and it came back to life (I didn't know it was a breaker at the time) It has happened multiple times since then but the button doesn't seem to always fix it.

anyway, should i just take that wire and transition it over to the 12 volt cigarette lighter breaker instead?

See the images below for explanation








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