Jabsco Pump Question

SnivesAtGT · Newbie Joined: 23 Feb 2006 Posts: 26

I setup an ballast system on my boat, and used Jabsco pump. I know that they are slow/etc... but it's simplicity and the fact that it was self priming was motiviation enough.

It's a two pump system (have a sac in front and rear).

The rear one operates perfect, but the front has problems. It can fill the sac fine, but the motor freezes up when trying to drain. I didn't realize this at first, and burned one motor out. Not making that mistake again, so I just drain it manually - which is a pain.

My main question is: Does anybody know what's involved to make it so it can reverse easily Or there any tricks (i.e. keep the pump above both the water and sac level/etc...)

I know that I could hook up an aerator pump to drain - attached to the sac - but I'm wondering if anybody knows any tricks so I don't have to do this (so I don't have to rewire my switches/etc...

Thanks.

P hat in Cincy · Posted: Mar 22, 2007 4:56 pm Post subject:

It's probably not uncommon to run across this problem on any impeller pump, but the Jabsco seemed more prone to it...from my experience. What's probably happening is that the vanes are 'locked' in their fill direction and you're not getting enough juice to reverse the vanes for emptying.

This was a fairly common issue on the Jabscos used in stock MasterCraft systems. They made an impeller change (yellow impeller?) that was supposed to help the cause.

I also had this problem on our former X10 that used Jabscos. One of the tricks I used was to fill the bags to the amount desired and then flip the pump to empty for a couple seconds. This gets the vanes going in the anticipated next direction (empty).

Others will probably ask you what gauge wire you used to run them (too small = not enough juice), but I'm no electrical expert to be able to tell you what to do there.

Do a search on Jabsco pumps and I'm sure you'll return a ton of results.

Hope this helps.
Paul

oshensurfer · Posted: Mar 23, 2007 1:02 pm Post subject:

P hat in Cincy · Posted: Mar 23, 2007 2:20 pm Post subject:

SnivesAtGT · Newbie Joined: 23 Feb 2006 Posts: 26

So should I switch pumps? I was thinking of setting an aerator for the out - through the bilge pump out...

do you recommend not doing this and moving to a different pump instead

Thanks,
Ben

P hat in Cincy · Posted: Mar 24, 2007 11:27 am Post subject:

Ben,
You have all kinds of options. Depends on what you want to do and your budget.

1) You most certainly could put an aerator to drain the bag. Do you have a vent line for that bag? You could tie into that, but you'll need some check valves. You could tie into your bilge line, but I don't like to mess with bilge lines...I leave them for their intended purpose.

2) You could drop $70-80 and get a Simer. Simers are not ignition proof like the Jabscos, so you have to be mindful of where you put them. It's still an impeller pump so you could run across the same type problem.

3) You could find an MC dealer or order (online) the updated Jabsco impellar if you are running the old (black) version.

4) You might want to do the search on this site about the Jabscos to see if you want to beef up your wiring/power running to what you already have.

Take care,
Paul

wesgardner · Posted: Mar 26, 2007 5:42 am Post subject:

I don't have Jabscos but from what I've heard, it's like P hat in Cincy, said - update your impeller, update your wiring size (I'd go to 10 ga.) and LUBE the impeller with teflon grease..

SnivesAtGT · Newbie Joined: 23 Feb 2006 Posts: 26

Thanks for the replies.

I'll try doing those things.

The pump worked really, really well for the back sack....

blaydeman · Outlaw Joined: 03 Jun 2006 Posts: 119

did you burn out the motor or burn out the pump? jabscos are nice because the pumps are easy to fix. the problems ive encountered with them are the pumps not working because they were ran dry and the rubber impeller got fubared.

SnivesAtGT · Newbie Joined: 23 Feb 2006 Posts: 26

It was definitely the motor in this case. I sent it back to them - hopefully under warranty though.