Axis Wakeboard Boat Forum

Alright, My Bilge will automatically cut on sometimes. I notice this cause the light comes on. I guess it does this if the water gets too high. Must be a sensor or something...?
But when I turn on the switch it will not pump, even with water in the engine compartment. Not sure what is going on... Any ideas? Also noticed that it will not pump unless the engine is cranked.

ALSO, My front ballast bag will drain and then stop draining. I thought it was empty until I started off and noticed the seats raise up from the water distribution. I turned it on again and it started draining again. It drained for a while and stopped. I turned it off and a few seconds later turned it on and it drained a lot more. What is going on with this pump...? Did this while setting still.

Thanks

With the bilge pump, you probably don't have enough water in the compartment to pump out.

The bilge pump is on a float switch. When water is high enough it will lift the float and kick on the pump. When that happens, does water pump over the side?

When you turn on the pump manually, do you hear it come on? If it does, there might just not be enough water to pump out. Most bilge pumps probably need to be surrounded by an inch or so of water to actually get suction.

As for the front bag, you are probably getting air into the line and breaking the suction. When you move the boat, water sloshes back into the line and primes it again. Where is your drain line connected? Originally mine was on top of the bag. I switched the drain line to be the lower opening at the back of the bag to solve this exact problem.

Yes it pumps over the side. Only thing is that we knew we had water in the boat from a SUMO bag mishap. It didn't drain when we turned the pump on. Wasn't until we pulled a rider and stopped that we finally saw it draining. Must have been the water all going to the back of the boat that finally triggered it. Still a little pissed cause I tried to drain it today and once we started I heard the belts starting to squeal and stopped. Then I noticed all of the water in the back compartment. I wonder if the float switch can be adjusted....? Any ideas? I do hear it come on when I turn it on. Must not be enough water to get it to pump out. So any ideas on the float switch would be appreciated.

I will double check my front bag tomorrow. But I am 95% sure that it is connected on the lower back.

Thanks for the help.

The bilge pump should be clipped into a plastic bracket on the floor of your bilge. Check of it popped out of the bracket. If it's not sitting the way it's supposed to, the float won't work right and the pump might suck air even if turned on manually. On my previous boat the plastic bracket broke and had to be replaced

With reference to the front bag. I had this problem and asked the same question. AJ told me to check to see how long the rear connected hose is. He said if it's to long it will have a problem draining and to cut the hose a bit, which I did and it works perfectly now without any issues. Hope this helps.

Ferral and Cali. Great info.
I will check these tomorrow.

I love this site. Everyone here rocks.

If my boat is sitting at rest, any water collects in the center of my boat, I think the bilge pump is in the rear of the engine compartment and doesn't have any water around it. When under way and the water flows to the back of the boat it would come on and would work manually. Last year I became an expert at bilge pumping my boat out because of the defective sumo bags. If I was not underway I would just stand on the swim deck so the water would collect in the rear of the boat and it would pump out most of it.

I have my front bag setup like the description above....but are you guys really able to drain it dry while sitting still? I have noticed that I can get a good amount out...but to really get it all I've got to run it while underway and the boat is nose high

Mine will drain fully while at rest as long as I don't have people in the bow or as long as I have ballast in the rear bags keeping the front even or elevated. Mine would do just like Bama's, it was because they had originally used an elbow connection on the drain hose. I replaced it with a straight fitting and it no longer looses it's prime. It does however drain noticeably slower than my other ballast, with a really weak flow.