ballast pump buttons Question

[Lvnspeed]

I see alot of people put there water inlets and ball valves almost (ususally off to the side of the motor) right under the motor. My question is that in my boat 226 it would a HUGE pain to get to them if they were there. Is there a reason why I couldnt put them behind the Vdirve so I could get to them from the opening under the seat for the oil inspection of the vdrive What ever that black plastic round srew on cover is called?

[Simpson]

In the process of trying to upgrade my ballast to Jabsco pumps and keep the original ballast keypad switches functional. I wired it up like C.A. had drawn out but I'm tripping the factory breakers everytime I try to test the pumps. What could be causing this? What size wire is everyone running? I have 14 AWG from the pump motors to relays and from relays/fuses to the battery, the rest is the stock 16 AWG from factory. I'm at my wits end with this, any help would be much appreciated. Thanks

[NautiqueJeff]

Your pumps are probably just pulling too many amps for the circuit. The original pumps were not impeller pumps, and used much less power.

[hal2814]

This happened to me once on a custom install in an old Super Sport. I was pulling my hair out over it until I found I had screwed through one of the wires and it was shorting. I would start by disconnecting the motors and using a cheap test light. First test that the switch itself is sending power to the light and then hook the light up to the relay and verify that the switch is correctly operating the relay. If the fuse pops on a test light you definitely have a short, not an excessive power draw.

[Simpson]

Ok going to get a test light on it to see what happens. Wouldn't think it would be tripping the breakers for all the pumps unless the short is in the pos or neg wire. If it's not a short could I increase the resistance in the circuit to reduce the power and still have the pumps function?

[Simpson]

Been messing with it today, the circuitry tested out fine. Still tripping the breakers though, seems like an overload not a short b/c the breakers don't trip instantly. Is there a way I can lower the amps and still use the keypad with these pumps or is that out the window now?

[Stevemo14]

I know you said you wired it up as C.A. Said, but did you use the relays? If you didn't use the relays they you would be pulling way to many amps, If you did use the relays, i would double check that they are wired correctly, my guess is you have a short on one of the relays that cross connect to the pump.

[scottb7]

yep, if you using the relays and still blowing circuit then you probably gotta compare what pumps draw to what breaker is rated for. If your wire is rated high enough then it is NOT a factor and you need to just increase breaker rating.

You understand that when using the relay you in essence have 2 circuits. One is the circuit the switch is on. The 2nd is the one the pump are powered on. The switch circuit cannot support the pumps. The switch circuit can have thinner wires, and lower amp on breaker. The pump circuit has to have thicker wire and higher amp breaker.

[Stevemo14]

If you look at the drawing, the pumps are wired to separate fuses running directly the battery., all the relays are doing is activating the power from the battery to the pump. If you are trying to run the pumps off the wires that went the aerator pumps it will blow for sure. I would assume that you don;t have a fused power source directly from the battery to the pump relays.

[Simpson]

Finally figured it out. After redoing and testing the circuits numerous times I started to suspect the relays. Tested the relays with a multimeter and all looked good. Hooked them directly to the battery to see if I could hear them click and after a second or two it finally clicked. Still not exactly sure what was going on maybe the relays were stuck but hooked it all back up and everything is working as it should. Thanks for the help, once I finish with everything I'll throw some pictures in here for anyone else trying to tackle this.