Did I burn up my pump - Update...PROBLEM HALFWAY SOLVEd

bjflink

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My live well pump was working intermittently, so I replaced it with a bait sentry 800 and that seemed like it solved the problem...until now. The new pump started working intermittently again, and I noticed that sometimes the switch on the console would light up as if it were ON, but was actually in the OFF position. When the switch was ON, sometimes the pump would run, and sometimes it wouldn't, but then kick on every now and again with the switch in the ON position. I pulled the switch panel off and put my tester on the switch. 12.5V when turned on, and 9V when turned off. So, I know thats part of the problem. Next, I took the hot lead to the live well pump and plugged it onto a verified working accessory switch and nothing...no pump running.

I think my first item to attack is replacing the switch, but I'm wondering if that was really the source of the problem to begin with or if the pump/wiring somehow burned up the switch. I'm scratching my head on this one. I attached a picture of the back of the switch panel and you can see the switch lit up in the OFF position (the lead to the live well pump is pulled off in this picture, hence the unused connector tab). I also attached a basic schematic of the panel wiring.

UPDATE 4/4/2017
OK, so I pulled the aft deck hatch and checked my wiring for the live well pump. All looked good. Went back to the console and pulled the switch panel up again...all the sudden the live well pump kicked on. I moved the + lead for the pump to an accessory switch to eliminate the the live well switch as the culprit. Pump stayed running until I started to move the panel back in place to re-fasten back down. Long story short, I have a loose ground. Here is my next problem...I cannot for the life of me figure out where the ground wire is actually grounded?? The wire harness coming up into the head and then on to the console has a half dozen grounds in it, so I have no idea which one is for the live well pump, and even if I did, I still can't figure out where the heck they all go to get grounded. I follow the wires up as far as I can, and they go right past my grounding block and head upwards back toward the switch panel, but I can't find out to where...Any ideas??

Thanks!