2001 SO 37 shower drain pump

[handsumrob]

Good morning all. I’m hoping to find some troubleshooting advice. My shower drain pump is not working when turned on. I disconnected it and hooked it up directly to 12v and it came right on so I figured maybe it was a looser connections. I reconnected it and pressed the shower butting and again it did not turn on. I then put the multi meter on the wires coming from the boat and when the pump button was turned on it was reading 17.7 volts. Why would it be so high? Or does this indicate a different issue?

[svejk]

I've had similar problems and it was caused by the switch wires working loose.  I'm hoping to install a 10-15 sec relay in between.  This should also reduce so some of the tension on the wires so they don't pull out.

[jaminb]

The connectors on my switch had gone green, a squirt of plus gas and a wiggle of the connections got the pump working again.

As an aside I think the jabsco pump and filter is wholly unsatisfactory - following ybw forum advice I am 'upgrading' to a whale gulper that apparently does not need the filter that constantly clogs up with whatever my family deposit in the shower sump!

 

[Trevor]

Hello handsumrob,

I can’t explain the high voltage reading but would not fixate on that while fault finding this issue. The good news is you know the pump works. The circuit is no more complex than your pump test setup apart from the switch and a fuse. One of those wires must be open circuit or perhaps a fuse blown or the switch faulty.

To prove if it is the negative or positive circuit that is faulty, simply take a wire from the battery and put it on the positive side of the pump. If it works you know the negative return circuit is good. If it doesn’t work try getting a wire from the negative side of the pump and connect it to the negative of the battery( or the engine block).

This can help you isolate where you should look for the problem.

I hope this helps a bit,

Trevor