Has anyone rewired their bilge pump?

[Supraman]

I leave my 01 SX in the water for a good portion of the summer and am not sure what to do about the bilge. If I turn the main power turn off key under the rear seat, the bilge won't work. The manual says the bilge button should be a 3way.. (Off/On/Auto). Mine only seems to be a two position though (off/on). How do I even put it into auto mode?

What I am considering doing is rewiring the bilge so that is direct to the batteries so that it always has power. Since my boat is in the water overnight, I want the securtity of a functioning bilge while I am away from the boat.

Would I be better off to just leave the power switch under the rear seat to "On", and the bilge in auto (if it has an auto setting)?

A third option would be to add a second bilge, most likely in the rear of the boat. This would require drilling another thru-hull fitting, which I don't really want to do.. For those of you that have installed a rear bilge, where did you put the fitting? I'm assuming it would have to go above the rubrail?

[wakejunky]

I'm not sure about off/on/auto either. mine was same as yours but i rewired and add a separate float switch, and i upgraded to a 1200 gph pump. it maybe over kill but oh well. i really considered adding a rear bilge but i have a lot of crap in the way of where i would put it. my closed loop cooling exchanger mounts right where i would consider the best spot. if your going to add it you do not need to be above the rub rail. measure how far down the factory one is from the rub rail or even your ballast overflow thru hulls. decide where you want it make sure on inside and outside of boat " i triple check" i would hate to patch. put your drill in reverse get the right hole saw and drill all the way through in reverse. it will keep the gel coat from cracking/splintering. i added 4 thru hulls and upgrade 2 factory holes. piece of cake

[Wet-N-Frugal]

Stock, this is the way my bilge pump works:  Push once for auto. Push again forces the pump on. Push again for Off.

Mine is a DD, so the water may pool differently in the bilge than a VDrive... But my Rudder has a mild leak, and water does accumulate around the bilge pump (just forward of the battery box). So I leave my battery switch on and the bilge in auto, when left on the water over night. It never has run the battery down.  Remember to clean out the filter screen at the pump intake.

-WNF-

[Supraman]

Stock, this is the way my bilge pump works:  Push once for auto. Push again forces the pump on. Push again for Off.

Mine is a DD, so the water may pool differently in the bilge than a VDrive... But my Rudder has a mild leak, and water does accumulate around the bilge pump (just forward of the battery box). So I leave my battery switch on and the bilge in auto, when left on the water over night. It never has run the battery down.  Remember to clean out the filter screen at the pump intake.

-WNF-

When yours is in the auto mode, is the red light lit up on the dash?

With mine, I push it once, the light and pump come on. I push it a second time and the pump turns off and the light turns off.

[Supraman]

I'm not sure about off/on/auto either. mine was same as yours but i rewired and add a separate float switch, and i upgraded to a 1200 gph pump. it maybe over kill but oh well. i really considered adding a rear bilge but i have a lot of crap in the way of where i would put it. my closed loop cooling exchanger mounts right where i would consider the best spot. if your going to add it you do not need to be above the rub rail. measure how far down the factory one is from the rub rail or even your ballast overflow thru hulls. decide where you want it make sure on inside and outside of boat " i triple check" i would hate to patch. put your drill in reverse get the right hole saw and drill all the way through in reverse. it will keep the gel coat from cracking/splintering. i added 4 thru hulls and upgrade 2 factory holes. piece of cake

Did you put any thru-hull fittings towards the rear of the boat? I assumed the thru-hull would have to be above the rub rail just because the boat can sit somewhat low when you have people + ballast in it. I don't have a closed loop cooling system so I should have space. I'll check it out this weekend and see.

[wakejunky]

yeah i put 2 thru hulls in the rear by the center of each rear storage locker. you would be surprised how much weight your can put back there and not have a problem. i have two 450 lbs. bags in each rear storage , the factory 700 lbs, 400 lbs bag in the walk way and 100 lbs of lead under the front seats, 5 adults 2 teenagers and it wasn't even close to my rear thru hulls. if you check out an old post of mine "new sx ballast system" 3rd post down first pic is of the rear thru hulls. i tired to hide them in the black section of the gelcoat using a black thru hull.

[skibeau]

The stock bilge pump in our '99 E22 didn't work, so I put in a Rule 750 but, if I remember correctly, had to swap the 'auto' and 'on' wires (for some reason they were backwards. The Rule has done great for us.

If you go with option 3, would a second battery (deep cycle?) on an isolator switch be useful so as not to run down the starting battery and/or potentially lose the engine computer's history of fuel burning settings?

[bullet1w]

Check the electrical connection.  if it is plugged in backwards it works as on/off. Connected correctly it will work as intended,