Frank Langer
1984 Ericson 30+, Nanaimo, BC
I recently posted about my bilge pump not working and got advice on checking it and installing various replacements. I have a new pump installed, working well, but decided to take the old one apart to see if I could figure out why it stopped working.
When I opened up the motor of the Jabsco Water Puppy pump (over ten years old, perhaps even the original from 1984), the wiring was scorched and the armature was no longer recognizable--just a hard black plastic goo with a few armature wires still visible. No wonder the motor wouldn't run, and I was dismayed at how hot it must have become to cause that mess--a fire hazard?
This raised several questions for me:
1) The 15 amp fuse for the bilge pump had blown, so I installed a new fuse, the motor ran for a moment, then the fuse blew again. Before removing the pump to install the replacement, I touched both pump wires directly to the battery terminals for 2 - 3 seconds to see if there was any hope of the motor working--ie. could the problem be wiring instead of the pump. There was no pump response, but could this few seconds have fried the inside of the pump like that, or did something else cause this melt-down?
2) My wife had smelled a "strange smell" while we were motoring recently, which I couldn't smell so couldn't do anything about it. On removing the pump, it smelled very bad, probably what she had noticed, but as far as I know the pump should not have been running while we were motoring--would anything else in running the engine fry the bilge pump? I don't have any water in the bilge, so it shouldn't have been running.
3) The 3 amp fuse to the DC player burned out recently for no apparent reason, and the CD player worked fine since then with a new fuse. Yesterday, the fuse had burned out again after I had taken the boat out to get fuel; after replacing the fuse, it worked fine again back at the dock. For some unknown reason, the CD player is wired directly to the positive and negative house battery, not through the DC panel. This is the first time in six years of owning the boat that this fuse has burned out, now twice in a month. Could the fact that it is wired directly to the house battery be a clue to where the surge is coming from? (I had read that plugging in shore power can cause a surge, but this has never been an issue before....)
4) While motoring to get fuel, the Raymarine knotmetre/depthsounds/anemometer and autopilot worked, then showed no data, only flashing dashes and began beeping, then worked properly for a few minutes, then not--when I got back to the dock and plugged in the shorepower, turned instruments on again, everything worked normally. This is the first time this malfunction has happened.
So my real question is, is there something else going on electrically that blew the bilge pump fuse, fried the pump motor, burned out two CD player fuses recently and interfered with Raymarine instrument operation?
I would like to get the the bottom of this, but it seems like such a vague and apparently unrelated series of malfunctions, I'm not sure where to start or even if a marine electrician would be able to do a methodical diagnosis. Everything worked fine until two weeks ago, and nothing has been changed on the boat.
Any ideas, advice???
Thanks,
Frank
When I opened up the motor of the Jabsco Water Puppy pump (over ten years old, perhaps even the original from 1984), the wiring was scorched and the armature was no longer recognizable--just a hard black plastic goo with a few armature wires still visible. No wonder the motor wouldn't run, and I was dismayed at how hot it must have become to cause that mess--a fire hazard?
This raised several questions for me:
1) The 15 amp fuse for the bilge pump had blown, so I installed a new fuse, the motor ran for a moment, then the fuse blew again. Before removing the pump to install the replacement, I touched both pump wires directly to the battery terminals for 2 - 3 seconds to see if there was any hope of the motor working--ie. could the problem be wiring instead of the pump. There was no pump response, but could this few seconds have fried the inside of the pump like that, or did something else cause this melt-down?
2) My wife had smelled a "strange smell" while we were motoring recently, which I couldn't smell so couldn't do anything about it. On removing the pump, it smelled very bad, probably what she had noticed, but as far as I know the pump should not have been running while we were motoring--would anything else in running the engine fry the bilge pump? I don't have any water in the bilge, so it shouldn't have been running.
3) The 3 amp fuse to the DC player burned out recently for no apparent reason, and the CD player worked fine since then with a new fuse. Yesterday, the fuse had burned out again after I had taken the boat out to get fuel; after replacing the fuse, it worked fine again back at the dock. For some unknown reason, the CD player is wired directly to the positive and negative house battery, not through the DC panel. This is the first time in six years of owning the boat that this fuse has burned out, now twice in a month. Could the fact that it is wired directly to the house battery be a clue to where the surge is coming from? (I had read that plugging in shore power can cause a surge, but this has never been an issue before....)
4) While motoring to get fuel, the Raymarine knotmetre/depthsounds/anemometer and autopilot worked, then showed no data, only flashing dashes and began beeping, then worked properly for a few minutes, then not--when I got back to the dock and plugged in the shorepower, turned instruments on again, everything worked normally. This is the first time this malfunction has happened.
So my real question is, is there something else going on electrically that blew the bilge pump fuse, fried the pump motor, burned out two CD player fuses recently and interfered with Raymarine instrument operation?
I would like to get the the bottom of this, but it seems like such a vague and apparently unrelated series of malfunctions, I'm not sure where to start or even if a marine electrician would be able to do a methodical diagnosis. Everything worked fine until two weeks ago, and nothing has been changed on the boat.
Any ideas, advice???
Thanks,
Frank
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