I have a 2004 257 with a single aft bilge pump. It no longer kicks on, either per the float switch or manual operation switch. The bilge pump is wired directly to the circuit board located on the transom (w/ the battery switches). There are also three, what I believe, circuit breakers under the the battery switches labeled aft float, memory and main. When I try to manually operate the bilge the aft float seems to trip and I can push it to reset it. I pulled the panel and confirmed I have power (reads 12.78 on the multimeter) to the wires that lead to the bilge pump. I recently replaced my batteries so I'm think I may have hooked those up wrong, although I'm not sure how. Could this just be the sign of a bad bilge pump? Or more likely a short between the batteries and the aft circuit board or between the bilge and the aft circuit board. This board is always extremely helpful for us novices and I thank you for your thoughts in advance.
If I understand you correctly, you have a float connected to the actual bilge pump and also a manual switch at the dash.
The three circuit breakers you mentioned are probably not all breakers. The one labelled MAIN should be fed off of the battery switch and not directly off of the battery. That feed will have a breaker.
The one labeled memory is probably the feed to the stereo so that is remembers preset stations when the battery switches are off. It probably has an in line fuse.
The third labelled float is most likely the feed to the bilge pump though the float switch. That usually also has in inline fuse.
The permanent float power and the power at the helm for manual override are separate feeds, the later being fed through the battery switch and the main breaker.
If you had you battery switch or switches ON and the pump didn't run when you flipped the switch at the helm or lifted the float you have one of three things:
A bad ground at the pump itself,
a bad pump
or less likely both hot wires to the pump are bad.
Try connecting a separate ground from the battery negative terminal to the ground connection at the pump and see if either mode works. If it doesn't I suggest you disconnect the pump and connect it directly to a battery.
As I have mentioned before, these kinds of problems are easier to find by using a test lamp ( the kind with a ground wire and a pointed tip). Those test lamps often will help find bad (high resistance) conditions because they draw current ti make the lamp light. Multi-meters draw very little correct and bad connections are easy to miss.
