Ballast not working

[Lavinder]

Recently our left rear ballast stopped working, filling and emptying. I replaced the switch and it still does not work. When I switch the power at the fill pumps, it will engage the pump which leads me to conclude that the wiring between the switch and the pumps is bad. Has anyone had this happen before? Should I try to pull new wires? I see one color coded wire, but the other is black (ground?). Would the male/female connector go bad in the ballast pump area? 2007 22 SSV Gravity III ballast system.

Thanks,
Jeff

[Wylietunes]

Does your setup use a single fill pump with sprinkle valves and dedicated drain pumps on each sac? If so, and neither pump runs, the problem is the switch or the B+ that feeds it.

[Lavinder]

I am not sure where the single fill pump is, but I have the three sprinkler valves and dedicated drain pumps. I replaced the switch today and its the same problem. What is the "B+"?

[Wylietunes]

battery positive

[Lavinder]

I will pull the + off one of the other switches and see if that takes care of it. The lights come on with the switch, so it is getting some power. I just don't get any response from the fill or empty pumps.

[jzelt]

Check fuses under the dash by drivers feet.
Ours both blew out on the center front bag.
The fill pump if stock would probably be in the v-drive on the starboard side.

[Zim]

Recently our left rear ballast stopped working, filling and emptying. I replaced the switch and it still does not work. When I switch the power at the fill pumps, it will engage the pump which leads me to conclude that the wiring between the switch and the pumps is bad. Has anyone had this happen before? Should I try to pull new wires? I see one color coded wire, but the other is black (ground?). Would the male/female connector go bad in the ballast pump area? 2007 22 SSV Gravity III ballast system.

Thanks,
Jeff

Did you mean to say when you flip the switch it WONT engage the pumps? If the pumps are turning on, then you have power to them and they're working. Most of the time it's a bad pump. Does the red light come on when you flip the ballast switch?

[Lavinder]

Did you mean to say when you flip the switch it WONT engage the pumps? If the pumps are turning on, then you have power to them and they're working. Most of the time it's a bad pump. Does the red light come on when you flip the ballast switch?

I checked the fuse box and lo and behold the fuse was blown. Switched fuses and it works. Until...I hit the empty switch and pow, the fuse blows. I have a short in the emptying pump. I tried to get a look at it but it is underneath the exhaust manifold. It will take some work to get to it. I felt around it and it was wet, which leads me to believe it cracked, or something bad went wrong. Does anyone know what pump can be used to replace it? And where to get it?

[Zim]

I checked the fuse box and lo and behold the fuse was blown. Switched fuses and it works. Until...I hit the empty switch and pow, the fuse blows. I have a short in the emptying pump. I tried to get a look at it but it is underneath the exhaust manifold. It will take some work to get to it. I felt around it and it was wet, which leads me to believe it cracked, or something bad went wrong. Does anyone know what pump can be used to replace it? And where to get it?

I've replaced all 3 drain pumps in mine with 800gph tsunami pumps from amazon. They're about 30 bucks each or so. You have to trim the threaded inlet portion a bit, but otherwise no issues. The rear ones won't fit back in their stock location. Front is a direct fit.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001O0D6KQ?cache=55b02880d4aa8154029fffe4f4530660&pi=SY200_QL40&qid=1408933086&sr=8-1#ref=mp_s_a_1_1

Sent from my Galaxy S3 using Tapatalk.

[Lavinder]

Thanks Mike for the information. Any issues wiring it, or is it pretty simple? My issue will be getting to the pump. I have to take the entire exhaust manifold off to get to it (easily). I may be able to contort myself to get to it without removing the EH, but it will be difficult. I am toying with junking the whole system and going with the reversible pumps, but I haven't had any issues until now with the system. Supra puts things in very difficult to get places.

[Zim]

Thanks Mike for the information. Any issues wiring it, or is it pretty simple? My issue will be getting to the pump. I have to take the entire exhaust manifold off to get to it (easily). I may be able to contort myself to get to it without removing the EH, but it will be difficult. I am toying with junking the whole system and going with the reversible pumps, but I haven't had any issues until now with the system. Supra puts things in very difficult to get places.

The wiring is very simple. There's two wires, brown and black, and then your stock wires will have an electrical connector. Just unhook that connector, get your pump out, cut the connector off, and attach the new pump wires to the stock electrical connection. That will make more sense when you actually do it. I just soldered the wires from the new pump to the old electrical connector, and all is well after a good shrink wrap, and electrical tape covering things up.

I'm not familiar with where the pumps are on your boat, but mine weren't "easy" to get to until I removed a couple panels from my v-drive lockers. Each of my pumps were all the way back on the stern, and attached just to the edge of the floor in the lockers where it drops down into the bilge. I had to fold down the access panels, then remove the access panel that was hugging the transom of the boat in the v-drive locker. Once I removed that panel, it was easy to get the pumps out. I just unscrewed the entire bracket and pulled them out. They were hiding underneath the muffler, but definitely far enough back that I didn't have to remove any manifolds.

Can you get a picture of where your pumps are? On mine, if you see where the ballast hose is hanging out here, if you followed that line through the access panel, my drain pump was directly on the other side of the panel. Hopefully that helps.

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u99/zimstang/IMG_3344_zps8e4e3cf8.jpg (http://s166.photobucket.com/user/zimstang/media/IMG_3344_zps8e4e3cf8.jpg.html)

[Lavinder]

Mike,
Its like looking at my own back of boat. My pump is in the same location, I just have to remove the back board on that hides the exhaust ventilation tubes and reach down past the exhaust manifold to get to it. I think I can get to it without EH removal, it will just be tight. Probably a little bit of blood, swearing and a beer or three.
Thanks for your help, I appreciate it.
Jeff

[Zim]

Mike,
Its like looking at my own back of boat. My pump is in the same location, I just have to remove the back board on that hides the exhaust ventilation tubes and reach down past the exhaust manifold to get to it. I think I can get to it without EH removal, it will just be tight. Probably a little bit of blood, swearing and a beer or three.
Thanks for your help, I appreciate it.
Jeff

Should only need a phillips head screwdriver to unscrew the metal bracket that holds the pump in there. Once you unscrew that bracket, you should be able to pull the pump into your locker to work on things a little easier.

Good luck.

[Lavinder]

I got the bracket unscrewed. It sits beneath the EH. What a pain. Now I am having a hell of a time getting the hoses off. They are wire tied in everywhere so I am cutting those to get some play with it. Will update if I get this SOB out.

[Lavinder]

15030
Big crack in the bottom of the pump. I would guess it wasn't winterized properly and it took me this long to figure it out. With a bad shoulder this summer, I haven't been doing any boarding so the ballast pumps have been quiet. Now all I need is for it to stop raining so I can get the Tsunami pump installed. Used the existing wiring harness, just crimped and shrinkwrapped the wires.

[Lavinder]

One last complaint. The Tsunami pump does not indicate flow direction. I assumed it was the same as my old pump, top went to bag, bottom went to empty port. Apparently not so, as the pump comes on and nothing pumps. It must be reversed Am I correct that the bottom is the inlet and top outlet (reverse of how I put mine in). Nothing on the ATTWOOD website to show flow.

[Wylietunes]

Flow direction? They only flow one way as they are not reversible or bi-directional. Inlet is the threaded fitting on the bottom and outlet is the fitting on the side. The only reason it would not move water is if the wires were wired incorrectly and and the motor was spinning in reverse.

[Zim]

One last complaint. The Tsunami pump does not indicate flow direction. I assumed it was the same as my old pump, top went to bag, bottom went to empty port. Apparently not so, as the pump comes on and nothing pumps. It must be reversed Am I correct that the bottom is the inlet and top outlet (reverse of how I put mine in). Nothing on the ATTWOOD website to show flow.

Sometimes you need to step on the bag to get it primed. Those aerator pumps can get pockets of air and not suck water. The flow should go from the bag, to that big long threaded inlet (which you may have cut down to size), then out the side to your drain tube.

[Lavinder]

I have it in backwards. I thought it was inlet at the top and outlet at the bottom. I need to tear into it and switch it around. Easy fix, just difficult access.