Ballast Pump sometimes draining, not filling - Can't figure this out??
 

2010 Super Air Nautique 210

My Port Ballast Pump has stopped filling my hard tank and plumbed bag above the tank. When I turn the pump on, I can hear it running. If I manually fill using a Tsunami, I can get the pump to drain the bag and tank if I am moving at 25 mph or faster.

Here is what I have done to trouble shoot so far:

1. I pulled the impeller from the starboard pump and swapped it out, still no fill from Port.
2. Turned pump on while the back (triangle) cover was removed to verify the impeller spinning, it was.
3. Checked the thru hull fitting to be sure nothing was blocking it. Ran a vacuum, water dripped out.
4. Pulled the hose from the thru hull fitting, nothing inside blocking it.
5. Tested suction when the hose was removed while pump is running, very, very light. (My Tsunami pump is the same though...not sure that proves anything)

Is it possible that the pump is to weak to push the water in the hard tank and needs replaced? I would prefer to not replace the pump if possible, but have a houseboat trip coming up in two weeks and need to get this working again. I appreciate your help!

Nate

with the boat in the water, disconnect the hose going from the pump, to the ballast tank. Disconnect at the pump. Turn it on fill. Does water come out at all? It should come out strong. If nothing comes out, then there is either something wrong with the pump, or something blocking water from getting to the pump. If water does come out strongly, then I would hook the hose back up to the pump and disconnect the hose at the hardtank and run it again. Does water come out? That would indicate whether or not there was blockage/kink in the hose going to the hard tank.

boardjnky4,

I'll try that this week! Thank you!

I've checked the tubes running to the pump and from the pump, they are all in great shape, no kinks. They are made of a very solid rubber material, I wonder if there is something inside blocking just before the pump...

Check valves?

Over time the impeller Will strip on the shaft .It Will still spin with no load but when trying to move water it will just spin on the shaft

There's also a possibility the hard ballast tank is crushing the line in the rear corner.

Here's what I discovered during an FAE install (I hate to replay this again, but it is the time I most tore into my boat).

"Here�s the starboard compartment with the ballast tank removed.

If knew what I�d find, I would have pulled the tank with the fill-drain hose left connected. To get slack in the line would require disconnecting the other end of the fill-drain hose at the water pump. I did put it back in that order (in reverse). There simply is not good clearance in the hull of the boat for that hose to come out from under a corner of the tank. The tank kind of crushes the hose against the hull. I replaced the original nipple in the tank with shorter one to give the hose more of a run before it�s crimped at that corner. Thinking about it now, I might have given it a different fix."

http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/m...21/693846.html

I bet my starboard tank set up looks comparable to your port and starboard tanks. It's the side without the rear walkover.