Few things.

[Cusefan78]

Hey everyone. I have owned my first supra and my first inboard for little over a month now and I have to say ill never go back to anything else. It handles like its on rails, gets up to speed quickly, and is super comfortable. I was even surprised how it handled a little chop. I have a few questions. I changed the steering cable over the weekend and it made a huge difference I can turn the wheel now with one finger. My question is when I'm under power going down the lake it's a little harder to turn one way then the other I'm wondering if this is normal. Second I have two bilge switches I have been told bilge one is to turn on the automatic bilge. I looked in the well and can see a box the bilge is wired into. Is that an external float switch? If so I believe it's not working cause the bilge one switch does nothing. My only other thought was that the bilge one button was for the deck shower which I don't have hooked up. If I wanted to hook that up how is it controlled or is on demand? Again thanks for all the help

[chris young]

I just fixed mine, the PO just removed the float switch and wired the pump with no auto function. I replaced it with one that has an internal float switch. Sounds like you have an external float switch, so if the pump only runs in manual it may be working fine, but the only way to tell that I know is to get the water in the bilge high enough to trigger the pump. In my case once I got the new pump wired I dunked it in a bucket of water before I attached the hose to make sure it ran. Apparently on the new ones there's 2 holes in the float switch, and if you plug them both, after about 10 seconds the pump will run. Maybe on yours you can move the float manually to test?

[Cusefan78]

Yeah I had enough water in it last weekend. My cottage is in kingston ontario and I'm only up in the weekends. It's been raining in the northeast every day for a month. Do you have two switches also, am I correct in assuming the bilge one switch is for the auto bilge function?

[chris young]

Kingston? No kidding me too. I'm actually up HWY 38 around Godfrey, where abouts are you?

I have 1 switch with 2 positions, I'm pretty sure your 2 switches would be manual and auto, the manual switch should have a brown wire to the pump and the auto should have a brown with white stripe. I couldn't find a configuration that would give me common and an "either/or" so I'm not sure if I gave up too soon on all the terminal combinations, the switch was bad or it was the wrong switch. I connected the hot to the the auto wire right on the switch and left the manual where it was. I'm currently leaving my boat in the water unattended so I'd rather not make the mistake of accidentally leaving it with the auto off anyways.

If you know for sure you had enough in the bilge and the switch was in auto then it's probably time for a new pump with the float switch in it. I bought this one http://www.marinemart.ca/en/plumbing/electric-bilge-pumps/1000-gph-ultima-combo-pump-jpi07903 and one nice feature was the threaded connection for the hose so it's easy to pull out and put back in as I had to reach under the floor to do it.

[Cusefan78]

Wow small world. I'm on devil lake which is about 20 minutes north of kingston on Perth road. I was thinking of just replacing the float switch box thing so I can keep all my switches. I'm ocd about things. It would drive me crazy to have a switch that does nothing. Do you have a shower on your boat. I can't find a switch that operates mine and I would like to get it hooked up one of these weekends.

[chris young]

If you replace your pump with one like I posted above,(the float switch is on the pump) and bypass the existing float switch, you will still have all your switches working (assuming all the wiring is good), and you won't have to mess with getting the float switch working again. I just hard wired the auto function to the hot bus for convenience, peace of mind and I just couldn't find a switch postition that would let me energize auto without energizing manual. From what I've seen posted here by others, bilge pumps don't last all that long so if you have to do some work down there any ways , it's a pretty low hassle way to get it done. As for the shower, I don't have one so someone else may be able to chime in there. I'm just to the west of you, on White Lake.

[Cusefan78]

I know white lake. Nice spot. Yeah I'm going to get that same bilge and float. Your right of I'm going to go through all that hassle I'm going to do it all.