When I bought my 97 Vista 278 off some really close friends last year, I noticed the forward bilge pump (in the front locker where the genset sea strainer and 2 seacocks are housed) didnt work. I bought a new bilge pump to replace over the winter months. Not having a good strong working bilge pump in that locker, should something go wrong with the strainer, could be disastrous!
I crawled into the boat and installed the new bilge pump, that was the fun part. The original pump looked fine, albeit a little dirty. I had always wondered why that locker was so dirty inside, like water always sat in it. I just figured the original pump gave up the ghost years ago.
Anyways, cant get the new pump to work at all. Manually, auto or NOTHIN'. I multimetered the wiring harness in the bilge pump. Ah ha! No volts. At least I know why the old one wasnt working now. Start tracing wires and probing connections with the multimeter. Trace it back to the cabin circuit breaker panel. I jumper the bilge pump directly to the for bilge pump circuit breaker - nothing. Probe it, the circuit breaker isnt putting out any juice! Score, I found the problem - the breaker is bad.
Or so I thought... Turns out, presumably (because its never been touched by anybody but me), there was NO power wire going TO the forward bilge pump circuit breaker!
That explains the past water level stains I saw in that locker - Its always had a bilge pump in it, but it never had any power...lol. The forward bilge pump breaker had a brown wire with white stripe (thats the switched manual "on" wire), on the output side of the breaker. On the input side is had a solid brown wire. Which is correct - thats the automatic always on function. But the input side was also missing the most important part!! That is, a positive power lead to a. energize the breaker, and b. share the pole with the automatic always on function and power that.
I was glad it was an easy fix, I simply supplied 12v power to the circuit breaker.
My boat must've been built on a Monday... either that or Four Winns let the new intern wire my circuit breaker panel!
Moral of the story: If you have a 278 Vista from the late 90's and you dont remember ever testing your forward bilge pump - test it. If you have no power, check the breaker panel to see that it actually HAS the power wire.