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I broke the hose fitting on my old bilge pump. It was a 500 gph with a separate float switch. Upgraded to a 750 gph, all one piece (internal float switch). I cannot get it to work. The old pump had 2 brown wires going to float switch and 1 brown/1black going to pump. New one has 1 black/1brown/1brown/white. Wiring diagram has brown for auto, brown/white as manual, and black as ground.

Im a novice electrician (I can install a stereo), but this is driving me nuts. The old pump worked when I removed it, the fuse looks good. No matter which brown wire I hook to each other, it will not work. Help?

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1996 205 Sundowner DLX
5.0FL Volvo SX Cobra
Tow Veh: 2012 Nissan Frontier Pro-4X

For an auto bilge pump with a manual on switch, you should have three wires on the boat side - ground, power from battery and power from dash switch. Ground goes to ground, power from battery goes to the float then to the pump, and power from dash switch goes to the pump.

The new pump lists black as the ground, there is a pretty good chance the black wire connected to the old pump was ground, too. Those two go together. Black - Black

If you can remember which wire was connected from the boat harness to the float switch, that should be the 12v battery wire which would connect to the auto on your new pump. You can also check with a test light or meter to see which wire has power without the dash bilge pump switch being on. That will be your auto wire. That would be the brown wire on the new pump.

The other wire that was connected to the old pump (not the black one or the wire from the old float switch) should be power from the dash switch. You can verify that this wire has power when the dash switch is on and no power with it off. This wire will connect to the brown/white wire on the new pump.

If you don't have power between black and either of the wires on the boat harness, you have a problem somewhere else. The one wire for the auto circuit is usually connected to the battery and stays hot all the time. It may have a circuit breaker or an inline fuse somewhere to protect the circuit, but still should be hot all the time. It's possible that in swapping wires around, you may have accidentally popped the fuse, it happens sometimes.

Hope this helps. Good Luck!

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Jack
2005 268 Vista - Sold

2001 Silverton 35C 8.1L Crusaders

Thanks for the detailed reply. Will run it down today after the yardwork is done.....realllllllly wanted to splash the boat today, but won't do it without a bilge pump.

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1996 205 Sundowner DLX
5.0FL Volvo SX Cobra
Tow Veh: 2012 Nissan Frontier Pro-4X

Hooked it up like you suggested....nothing. Grrr....went to check the fuse for the 20th time.....it was blown. I had been checking the one above it (wiper) sometimes I can be cixelsyd. Fuse replaced, and all is well. Happy happy...annnd while I was crawling around putting the bilge in, I discovered where the small leak was that had been bugging me since last season (and the reason I wanted a bigger bilge pump), hose clamp on port side exhaust was loose, quick tightening and all is really well now. Gonna splash hopefully tommorrow.

Thanks!

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1996 205 Sundowner DLX
5.0FL Volvo SX Cobra
Tow Veh: 2012 Nissan Frontier Pro-4X

Awesome! Glad you got it going!

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Jack
2005 268 Vista - Sold

2001 Silverton 35C 8.1L Crusaders

Were you also able to check the float switch functionality? That should be direct from the battery, and not affected by a blown fuse on the panel (I believe...).
Glad you got things working - Enjoy the splash day!

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2002 Funship 214
VP 5.7 GX Si
2003 Tahoe

Yep, the new pump has a test button on it to check the float switch so you dont have to actually have the pump in water. To be honest, once I got the fuse replaced and all the wires hooked up right, I didn't even think of trying to get it to work with direct battery hookup to see if it works with the fuse blown.

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1996 205 Sundowner DLX
5.0FL Volvo SX Cobra
Tow Veh: 2012 Nissan Frontier Pro-4X