306 Bimini Shower Sump Pump Not Working

[bjflink]

I have a 2000 306 Bimini and discovered that my shower sump pump is not working. Anytime I rinse out the head, I guess water is just draining into the sump and overflowing into the bilge, at which point the mid ships bilge does the work once the float switch kicks in.

Does anyone have any experience troubleshooting this thing...and I guess what I'm looking for more, is advice on how to access the darn thing. Its barely accessible through the small midships bilge access hatch, but I have to reach around forward under the shower pan to touch it. Does the whole sump come lose somehow so I can replace/diagnose the pump and/or wiring?

Thanks in advance!

 

[jbrinch88]

Usually the float/pump are in a box that is mounted to the floor with a few screws. You can remove the screws and pull the whole box out if you have slack in the wiring/hoses, or if you can access the wires I can tell you how to troubleshoot it without removing anything.

You should have 12v to one of the float wires (usually grey if it's a rule float) at all times with the battery switch on. So start with that. If you don't have 12v to at least one of the wires, find the breaker/fuse for it and see if it's tripped or blown.

If you have power to at least one float wire check the other float wire(with the float up) and you should have 12v. This indicates the float is doing its job. If you don't have 12v with the float up on both wires the float is bad. If you have 12v on both sides with the float down, the float is also bad (but your pump would stay running at all times which it isn't)

So if that checks out check the wire going to the pump itself (usually brown + black - if it's a rule pump). You should have 12v at brown wire with float up and nothing with float down. If you have 12v at the brown wire and the pump is not running your pump is bad (after checking the ground side obviously).

That's about it really.

If you're planning on doing any electrical trouble shooting yourself on your boat I would highly recommend buying a power probe. I work on boats for a living and I use this thing every single day and it is a moneymaker. Awesome for simple 12v-24v stuff. A multimeter is great too but a power probe is faster at trouble shooting because you can hook it up to the boats 12v system at one of the batteries or fuse panels and you can supply 12v or ground just by hitting a button. Makes it real easy once you learn how to use it.

 

[bjflink]

Thanks for the help! So, I was able to determine that the wiring going to the pump is good, and that the pump itself has failed. I cannot however figure out how the heck to get the pump out or the entire sump box for that matter. I can get my hand inside the top of the of sump box, but I can't figure out how to unlock the pump. I also don't see any screws holding the sump box to the floor. If there are any tips/tricks for this, again, Thanks!!