Jabsco Ballast Puppies
 

I bought a boat a last summer and since then the 3 ballast puppies stopped working. I found out that there was a wiring problem. I then rewired the pumps and am sure that they are getting the correct amount of power. When I turn on the pumps (the boat is not in the water yet), I do not hear anything out of the pumps. However, I do notice that when I turn the pumps on the voltage off of the batteries drops about 1 volt for about 30 seconds and then goes back to normal.

Is this normal? Should the pumps not make any noise whatsoever due to the run-dry system? Or is something faulty with the pumps?

Thanks, Eric

Sounds like a bad battery, not a pump problem.

Should the pumps come on when the boat is out of the water? Or would the Jabsco Run-dry feature keep the pumps from turning on even for a couple seconds?

Yes, the pumps will run when out of water.

2nd that. My Jabso ballast puppy pumps will run out of the water.

And the pumps are clearly audible, correct?

I know I can hear mine, but just barely over the engine if it's on.

I can hear mine very clearly with the engine turned off. They are actually quite loud. Much louder then an aerator pump.

sounds like your impellers are stuck.there have been a couple threads about them which color to use and such .I also remember reading the black impellers swell and will get stuck but can be fixed by sanding the impeller and cleaning and polishing the inside of the pump

Which boat do you have?

There are resettable fuses on an MC, some models. But if that were the case, there should be no voltage drop.

As said above, these are noisy beasts, and you should hear them without the engine on wihtout a problem.

I have a 1990 Sport Nautique. I will have to take the pumps out and see what the problem is.

You don't need to remove the pumps to do the first round of troubleshooting (unless they're installed somewhere with limited access).

Start by removing the cover plate off the pump head, which will give you direct access to the impeller. You can then slide it off the shaft directly towards you. Once you've got the impeller out try the pump again, if the shaft turns then the impeller was bound up (which can happen for a number of reasons). The simple solution is to replace the impeller. Like someone mentioned, if your impeller is black, I would absolutely upgrade it to the new green compound impeller (I would probably upgrade even if your existing impeller is yellow).

If the shaft doesn't spin and you've confirmed the pump is getting power then it sounds like the bearings are seized, which is not good. If that's the case, your only real option is to replace them.

I had the bearings seize in one of my pumps. I think this happened because the pump was mounted with the impeller side up. The water left in the pump will leak down into the motor over time. Then that will cause it to seize. Came like that from the dealer. But after some research, seems like it is pretty important to get them right side up, unless you like dropping $220 bones every year or two for new pumps. Otherwise, they should last for a long time.

Yep, it's crucial that the pumps be installed with the motor end up (which is clearly outlined in the installation manual). Unfortunately a lot of manufacturers and dealers weren't doing that just a couple of years ago.