AEREATOR QUESTION

[BAIT956]

I have a Lund Mr. Pike 16 with two livewells. Each livewell has it's own pump and recirculator.

When I was out this afternoon, the front livewell motor would run, I could hear it, but no water would pump into the livewell. The rear livewell works fine.

I checked the pipes and entry hole. It was not blocked or covered up.

I turned it on every once in a while to see if it would work, but no luck. Am I going to burn out the motor by running it and not pumping water?

You guessed it, as I was going in, I tried it one more time and it worked, pumping up a storm.

What could have caused the problem?

I'm not down with poltergeists.

[Gissert]

I have the same boat, and this has happend a few times. Sometimes it will clean up on its own as it did for you. I found a pebble in the impeller one other time that caused it to not pump.

I have had luck using this method - set the valve to "fill" and stick a garden hose in the drain until you get water coming in the fill hole in the well. Then unscrew the filler assembly in the well, and back flush the other way. This usually fixes the problem. After a couple of flushes, the front well has not given me any further problems. I think I may have had a bunch of sand between the intake and the pump.

[croixeyes]

Sometimes youll get an airbubble type of problem.try backing up fast and you can force water into the pumps.this seems to work for me.

[BAIT956]

Thanks Gissert, if it happens again, I'll give it a try.

Again, am I in danger of burning out the pump by running it with no water pumping?

Croixeyes, I tried backing up, thinking that this might solve the problem, but it did not.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Quote:

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am I in danger of burning out the pump by running it with no water pumping?

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I am pretty sure your answer is yes to this question... They are designed to use the water as a lube I believe... I could be way wrong on this... but this is what I have been told.

[SpecialK]

If the impeller is not spinning yes definitly you run the risk of burning out the motor. If the impeller is spinning and depending on what the bushing is made out of (brass or plastic) you have a little more time before you can hurt anything. I would think the water would have more of a cooling effect than a lube though especially if the bushing is plastic.

[BAIT956]

That's what I thought too SpecialK. I didn't want to run it too long not pumping.

Call me haunted. The pump worked fine today. No hint of any problem, but you can bet I'm listening and watching real closely now.

I'm guessing it was an air bubble problem as suggested and it just worked it's way out.

Thanks for all the ideas fellas.

[WaveWacker]

Had a similar problem when I first got my ProV. Here is what I was told. The pumps themselves aren't designed to "pull" water to them (no priming) and then out to the livewells. They need water to them so they can pump to the livewells. I checked my supply hose that runs from the back of the boat to the pump and there was some extra hose that looped up some prior to going to the pump. I cut the hose and re-connected it to shorten it up some and make the hose as flat and direct to the pump as possilbe. This definately helped me out. This being said, I never try to fill my livewells while moving forward at all and actually if it acts up will put the motor in reverse and back up to aid in pushing water to the pump. Just an idea that worked for me.