Livewell pump priming

[Bill Hartman]

This past weekend we put my uncle's new 2003 PT 175 on the water for its first run. We liked everything about the boat, as we expected we would. He still has his '79 model Tracker with the original 40HP Merc and we use that on our smaller rivers and streams. That old boat has been a workhorse and we can still get 28-30MPH out of it.



Anyway, we did run into one problem with the new boat. We can't get any water to pump into the livewell. We can hear the livewell pump running but the well stays dry. We thought it could have frozen up as it was pretty cold Sat morning here in VA but the water temp was 49 and the outside temp got up around 60 later in the day. We tried it several times that day and never got it to work. I manually scooped some water into the well and it will hold and drain properly.



I had the manual open on the lake and it simply said that all I needed to do was hit the aerator switch. However, after we got back this weekend, I found a thing in the troubleshooter section that I missed on the lake. It says that we might have to prime the livewell pump by backing up with the aerator running. We didn't do that. Does anybody know if this is something that we'll have to do every time to get the livewell pump working? The old '79 tracker filled to water level automatically so we never had to do anything fancy to get water in the livewell.



Thanks for any comments, this is a great web site for info.



....BillH

 

[Mark Hofman]

Try taking a hose and hold it tight to the intake hole, squirting water into the intake hole as you turn the aerator on. That would pressurize the system and prime the pump, troublshooting if priming is the source issue. You might get a little wet doing it, but it would be easier than taking it back to the lake and launching it just to find the source of the problem.



If you still can't pump water, I would suspect that the pumps impeller is at fault, meaning a new pump.

 

[TOMMY RICH]

Mo's right and you should notice once it's primed you shouldn't have a problem unless it sets for long periods. Every now and then I'll have to shut it off then back and it'll prime itself...

TEE

 

[TrepMan]

Mo and TEE - I've never had to back up my 2000 175 to "prime" the pump. Just hit the manual or auto switch and she fills right up.



Hmmm...

 

[Sam Elkins]

Same here on my PT185. Never had to back up. On purpose that is. Maybe it self primes when ever I back off the trailer.??

 

[Donnie Matney]

Ok here is my .02....I out a new pump in my PT175. I had to back up to make it prime. (I found this out thru trial and error) The water hose didn't help because the presure was to high. It did pump water while the hose was on but it would not draw water from a bucket when we removed it from the transom. I would bet $100 on if you back up it will prime it. If I remember it took a few times to get. Hope this helps..let me know if you need anything.



Donnie

 

[James D.]

i've never had to prime the system on my nitro lx700. I am not sure, but I think there are some pumps out on the market that are 'self priming'. might look into this as the pumps are not too terribly expensive and should be easy to change out. the original pump in my boat was made by rule and it had some fish fin parts clogged up in the impeller which kept it from working. maybe it is just clogged as mofish suggested. i ended up replacing mine with an attwood brand which walmart had (one of those late nite repairs kind of deals) and it has worked great.

good luck and hope you get a lot of good use out of that livewell.



jd

 

[gone bye bye]

Backflush....with ahose...or replace the pump. You have an obosrutction.



Mini