Front bilge pump

[Chrisrog]

I have a recently acquired 2002 Super Air Nautique. While poking around today, I discovered the front bilge pump is missing. The strainer is there, but no pump, no wiring, no hose. Assuming I have to buy some hose and run from scratch, how much hose do I need, where does it exit the hull, and how should this hose be routed? I presume the wiring comes directly from the switch? Am I going to have to remove the gas tank to do this work?

Thanks for the input.

[rpaldrich]

ChrisRog, my '98 Sport has two bilge pumps as well, and both empty on the starboard aft side of the boat, right next to each other. Unsure if this is where yours will empty, but a place to start. The bilge pumps that came w/ boat were Rule "electronic" 500gph pumps, that run every minute or so for 5 seconds to see if it senses water, and if it does, it'll keep on running. Wiring for your boat IIRC is different, in that you might have a master switch for the bilge pumps that wire directly off of battery to switch assembly with a float switch. My pumps were wired to CB panel. Some searching on here is how I found my specific boats info. My fwd pump is just fwd of the engine (in the doghouse), and it's drain pipe goes straight back all the way to back of boat, then outboard and up.

[Chrisrog]

Thanks for the reply. I spent yesterday cleaning up wiring and removing a botched sound system installation some previous owner might have been proud of. The circuit breaker box was flopping around under the dash. It's now installed securely.

After I got that rat's nest of wiring removed, I found the backside of two openings forward of the driver's position on the starboard side. The forward opening has a tube connected to it that runs down into an opening into the bilge. I don't know where the other end of the hose is, nor can I find it because the belly storage locker prevents access to this part of the billge. The aft opening has been filled with silicone sealant. Could this have been intended as the empty port for a belly bag?

The rear bilge empties via an opening on the starboard side, aft, right under the rub rail, There is another opening here (and a matching one on the port side) that has also been siliconed up that presumably was used for ballast bag discharge before those bags were removed from the boat.

The glove box cooler appears to drain directly out the starboard side of the boat.

The bow cooler appears to drain directly into the bilge?

[Rockymtnsurfer]

My boat has two holes in the starboard side in front of the drivers seat. One is for the bilge pump in belly of the boat and one is for the belly ballast tank drain

[functionoverfashion]

My boat has two holes in the starboard side in front of the drivers seat. One is for the bilge pump in belly of the boat and one is for the belly ballast tank drain

If someone was too lazy to replace the pump when it died, I doubt they went to the trouble of removing all the wiring and the hose - are you positive it's not tucked away down there somewhere? Maybe try fishing a stiff wire down the hose from the outside of the boat and see if it comes out in the bilge.

So this boat had the hard tanks removed in favor of bags? Did they use a single pump to fill and empty them, like one of the proper ballast pumps? Or the ultimate lazy way, with a tsunami pump over the side? Or is that not known?

[Chrisrog]

I got down in the wakeboard locker and felt around through the access and found the end of the wire and the hose. I pulled enough slack out of the wire that I will be able to replace the connector ends once I can find someone who sells the connectors. The end of the hose is flush with the side of the fuel tank, so I'm not certain how I am going to be able to install a replacement bilge pump unless I can somehow fish some more of the hose out.

My understanding is the second owner removed the ballast tanks and siliconed over the openings in the hull. There is a bronze thru hull in the bottom to the port side of the transmission. It is capped off. I presume this was the intake for the ballast system? Does any one have a photo of how the ballast system was plumbed? My boat has the lift out stern seat cushions and 1 piece base.

Also, does anyone know where to find replacement electrical connectors for these boats? I'd prefer to not do splice jobs on the wiring as I try to correct the last decade of ownership. Thanks!

[rpaldrich]

ChrisRog,

Plumbing for these depended on options, but I have a diagram somewhere I'll try to find and post. The plumbing went from brass seacock to a Attwood 750gph centrifugal pump to another attwood pump. These pumps were mostly useless and the tanks fill up in 5 minutes or so just by driving around with the seacock open. if you look on the bottom of the boat, you'll see the scoop. Anyway water left the pumps and wound up in the tanks. There is an overflow for each pump with a check valve. There is also two lines that go forward to the boat's throttle area just to the right of the driver's seat. There are (or were) two shower looking dials that supposedly allowed air to exit for filling of the hard tanks. This kept water from entering when undesired and vice versa. I don't know how well it all worked, but there are plenty of posts on here about people removing the whole system.

My plan is to cut out the tanks, replace the pumps with something nice, and install fatsacs back there instead. I wouldn't waste time with the pumps. If you want to use the tanks, just take out the pumps and then drive around with the seacock open.