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How to fix a bilge pump for boats | TA Outdoors

Description

Graeme Pullen shows you some Totally Awesome tips on how to fix a boat bilge pump. He gives you some simple, easy tips on the bilge pump itself and how it works, as well as the steps that you need to take to get a smooth running bilge pump. Subscribe if you enjoyed, we have more videos coming!

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Tags: Boat (Literature Subject),Bilge Pump,Bilge,fishing,how to,diy,do it yourself,simple,easy,fix,repair,maintenance,save money,money,cheap,graeme pullen,graham pullen,mike pullen,ta outdoors,totally awesome outdoors,show

Video Transcription

welcome to the totally awesome outdoor show now then this one's sort of outdoors but I'm indoors on where you can't have anything now one of the things a lot of guys out there love about the outdoors is the water of course and of the water you either go wading or you have a boat a kayak they can do of some sort of vessel the floats I've got a boat in that boat if you do not want to sink you have to have a bilge pump now sooner or later within the maintenance program of any small boat fisherman you're going to have to check things now and notice few trips ago oh the builders are working hmm I left it just thought well we'll be rough won't take any huge waves over the side of the boat rondalee wrongdoing is a bad way of thinking I did a second trip no bilge pump put it off the frost came what I want to lay in the boat three trips are put in without a bilge pump now that's kind of stupid it innit but what I've done is I've bee now looked at the bilge pump because I thought mine is limping the float switch so it comes on the battery and for those of you don't know if water fills up in the back of the boat down in the world what's called the bilge that's what's called a build pump and even float goes up like this it goes click and at that sense of power to the pump switches the pump on and the pump sucks the water out of the boat fires it out put a tube hole above water level obviously I'll show you that in a minute but of course there's several ways of doing it I have heard of them being just linked directly to a switch at the dashboard so you just want to pop the bilge I'll click that's fine you pump any excess water out this down there but my problem is I pray on my boat a lot now while it's out there stood on the chocks why undo what's called the bump at the back which is the total drain of the boat of the bilge I take that out and I jack it up at the front like this just a touch so that any rain that comes in I mean it's covered with tarp anyway any rain that comes goes down the back down into the bilge and just drain straight out of the hole that's fine so almost in that situation their needs for bilge pump now when on trading among fishing days fishing obviously I leave the bug in when I take it in and out all the time from fishing in two to three days and roads just leave it put it on the trailer store in the whichever yard I mean you know whichever Reno I'm in but the problem is if I get a heavy you know Thunder burst of rain that's going to fill it up and there's going to be an intense pressure on top of my trailer so therefore you need a bilge pump if you're leaving your boat with the bug in for any length of time it needs to be able to pump rainwater out worse if you have your boat on a floating morning or at a marina pontoon you obviously have to build up in all that earlier Bunyan all the timing has to be common sense you must have that dual pump working on a float switch because therefore if it rains again heavy rainstorm it fills up you're not going to be there to flick the switch to pump it out that's why I have mine fitted with a automatic float switch so that I can leave it the float trip comes up click switch a pump on pumps any excess rainwater out there we go

I've had approaches another pump there I've been looking at the float switch supposed to explode trees think the problem was there it's not I want to take your guys out and show you some of these little tips you can have just to check those bilge pumps you need it do you know what in a weird scenario you could even save your life let's get out of the boat the first thing I'm going to do bail out the bottom of the bilge get a sponge and all the water out I can get to the screws on the float switch and I can see what's happening with a pump funnel maybe you can find out what's blocking it up well I'm just gonna squeeze down here oh use a scoop here the sponge

I just sponge out the very last of that water that's great in the rain because even though I've got the bum out but standing on a trailer for rain you still get some that's going to filter through so it's best to work with a dry bilge and I can see already you know what's in a little bits of fishing line little bits of snipped off fishing line and that is always a classic case of blocking bilges and other British charter fishing will probably tell you that indeed the shore chart official to around the world suffer from that problem for this efficient line going down locking up the bilge that could be my problem now what I'm going to do now guys I'll take it no no this is gonna work or not I want you to see the builds down here start going to use the light off the big camera there is a small camera and the sound of the big camera I don't know if this is going to work or are you going to see I just wanted you to see the bilge and this camera the small one is like 170 degree angle on it so you might be able to see it no use the floodlight off the big camera there's my two batteries over there it's linked from I didn't finish when I myself company picked it up for me and I can see where it is no in low infused which they say put a two and a half amp inline fuse to the pump now this is the existing pump it's all cleaned out hoping you're seeing this I can see that this you know this area here there's my hole and then you can see that down the back there's the bilge hole the drain plug hole that we don't know is you have to have that filled up and blocked up with a special plug just called bung traditionally so the water can't come back in but when it's on a trailer obviously take it out so water can drain out as you can see just there it's about an inch to the bottom of the fields now Filch is the lowest point in the boat really and that's all the rubbish goes amok and you can see down here there's bits and pieces I've already got fishing line out of there

now there's the pipe that goes out that is obviously connected to the pump nor we have disconnected there or disconnect the float switch so here you can see the float switch there and then what happens is you can hear it click just like this the float actually moves as the water fills up in the world it pushes that up there if you can see that click that sends a direct current to the pump when it's drained down we can hear it offset on and off now the reason you would say well why are you changing the pump Graham the reason I'm changing that tub is because hang on one moment it's intermittent so he's sticking so what I've done is taking this out you should disconnect everything when you do this but I wanted this just to show you there is like the impeller that sucks the water out and you can't get this a fishing line just in there just in that in that little joy in there but where the pump runs so I'm going to change a pump anyway but what I feel is blocking this up two things are you shark fishing oil and the heck give this pump a bit of clear up but I think there's oil in there but there's a very very fine residue or blue paint particles and you can if I put this down hopefully can you systems let me get that light up maybe you can see the blue particles of paint here just there now I feel that's what's going to probably burn this motor out eventually and that's what's making it stick because I painted my bottom with bogo normally have a special non-slip deck paint that is actually gray and it was really good it's got a grip that you mix in with it but this time I use a different one that's all they had was blue but it came with pre-mixed particles in it and it is rubbish I'm not using this one again but it's all flaky it's all flaky and I feel this paint is peeling off every time I do a wash down that it's going down in the bilge it's blocking this pump up maybe it's not bits of fishing line but don't put this a fishing line little snippets down there it will Jam the pump up so you know now what a builds looks like you can see that there's a bilge you can see there's the float switch and you can see it's dismantle pump and that's what we're going to change for a new one and we're probably putting inline fuse of that where they say in two-and-a-half amps on that one says we're going to put there and then I can pump out absolutely no worries at all it'll do automated pumping if it's on the trailer or even if you sort of wet more so we get that one worked out now and it guys on crimps it and I've got the new pump wide in I've screwed back the cleaned all out the float switch as well I did it with the warm water and washing up liquid because I get through so much oil when I'm official well this is what I'm sharp fishing so it could be in the edge of the floats which is just making that little flow switch stick a bit I mean it was working but let's just do it while we're at it it's mating this is maintenance

so whole wide in here now got my crepes of a meal i infused further up but what you might find difficulty with is getting this pipe back on they enter the outflow for the pipe you know for the pump so my tip is i get a cup of water cuz it's very very cold here today we're going to have about five below in a few hours here so this is going to be very stiff and hard to do so what I do is put this in a cup of hot water this is the plastic pipe here not the pump and that make it soft and then open hopefully work it on there you don't need to clamp it and hold itself and I can screw the top back in its located or holding mounting bracket here somewhat water on this get it softened up before this temperature really does bomb out there you go guys I don't these many people have crawled down eight builds with a miniature camera right Elisha to show you you know what a small boat build your place we should look like this finished now I'll just move the line around hopefully you got something there and you can see that pipe is on the outlet of the pump nicely goes right back up over the back over the back and vanish out the side of the boat I'll show you on the outside of the boat the flow switch is now screwed down in place now something you should be aware of I know it sounds sort of idiot proof let's just like a balance that camera there

you can't just drill these and screw them straight through the hole you will be filling up with water even faster than a pump can pop it out make sure that you have wood mounts and use marine silicon to glue those to the actual hull itself

and then make sure that the screws you use on longer go to the wood and the hull as well they only want to be short of the wood itself I know sounds incredibly stupidly common sentence but you know that's the way it needs to be in a boat you need safety and you need everything to work what I need to do now it's just wire up over there finish wiring up the two batteries and it is hopefully job done what I'm not going to do is I'm not going to fill it with water and flush the pump I just a running dry so take a rug grudges wood you know a test because I want to split this floor off get rid of this awful blue nones mix paint they've they've sold this it was okay and it's not and go back to the gray and I want to put the grit in it on myself but non-slip particles that they put in to give you it ought to do it myself

that was much much better won't mention later the paint makers but you know very very well known but this blue stuff is absolute yeah it's it's not good there we go guys new build phone fitted and batteries over there just could be wired up and we're all done hope you enjoyed it

I've got a couple other tips I'll show you just inside but I want to get this done now because it's getting very very cold out here okay finally guys I've got it all taped up here you can see that I've got all the loose stuff up there and put another little bit of tape there to keep them up out the about the waters just to basically be tidy and here's the float switches that are working I'm hoping it Hilda pumping and there's no water either the pump you should be out of here that that is actually now functioning back in working order

well back indoors now little bit warmer in here just want to show you this is the old pump okay this is the old pump and obviously you got your pipe there just so you guys because if you guys out there that I've got boat so they just bought them paid the money going out on them and I don't know how things like build tops in that work so this is just a basic instruction give you an idea I've got all battery here which I'll use inside the house for put on my echo sound and stuff like that so I'm just going to pop this on you should be able to hear it now this is the one that sticks but you're still hear it turn over now hopefully you can hear that now my batteries are flat now if you see now it's actually sticking and that's the problem I had so it worked two or three times but then it starts to stick so I'm just going to show you you release the base mount with those two tags I mean all there's different models of builds pub that pops off okay so you can always clean that out you know cuz that's got that screening around the edge there but you can see pieces of fishing line get in there and I just know that a lot of that paint off my debts got in there and probably mess this up I have cleaned this up just you know to show you and you can unscrew here obviously do this when it's all disconnected the power on the boat it's got a rubber seal I should be able to pop there you can see that brother seal around the edge there so there we're going to call propellers a little impeller which actually sucks the water up and pushes it out through that hole there comes out through there so you know it works now at least it gives you an idea now whether that one's going to work because I've actually moved you with my finger I don't know but I just hope it will and at least it'll show you roughly there we go sly you ever stand upside down and then you can see this but I just can't afford to leave this one because look you think yeah it's stuck now it's stuck I'm touching it on and off okay so this is where I've changed it because I'm going on and off the terminals nothing if I give it a move it should there we go now you'll be very very tempted wouldn't you to leave that on the boat thing it works but no there's something in there it's sticking is either my shark fishing oil or it could be a mixture of sharpness and oil and paint chippings you'll find powder so I'm afraid it's going to go into the bin now then all the time start it again no it won't have it it's got to go in the bin you've seen the old pub stop and start finally I just thought I'd show you in case anybody says what's an inline fuse that's the inline fuse so that stops it burning out should it be going all the time and it doesn't you lit the possibility you might overheat burn out who knows worst case scenario sparks goes into flames when I measure is about 15 inches from 50 litres to 25 mins of field tanks so maybe having a fuse in there it's good on this particular model cause read the instructions on each one it may well be different it says drop in and in line two-and-a-half and fuse now that's the holder it's in it's not going to be waterproof it can be sort of spray proof I guess it's a rubber sealed tight one so there's your inline if you get it as well you call it an inline fuse it's in the line in the current and then if I pull it out is the fuse okay so that's a fuse so this one's no good or going to change it that's a 5 amp so you want to get to a or whatever that model says put it there you just fit it in there and if you want to know how a fusers gone it's a sort of best shape join between the two tables in the middle if that's busted you gotta get a new fuse but pop it in close it up squeeze that rubber nice and tight and make sure you keep it above water level so make sure you put it say towards the end of the battery end out of the way you don't under the water that in the actual one because it's going to spark out it well there you go guys I hope you enjoyed it keep watching and totally awesome outdoor show we're trying to give you as many tips as we can and listen don't forget the greatest fishing show on YouTube you must know what is the totally awesome fishing show you want to catch some fish will certainly give you the tips or almost I mean it has swims good luck with it and good luck with that boating you

About the Author

TA Outdoors

TA Outdoors

Bushcraft, Wild Camping, Wilderness Hiking Trips, Solo Overnight Camps, Shooting, Hunting and Backpacking. My dog joins me on some of the trips. His name is Jaxx.

My name is Mike. And I'm addicted to adventure...

Check out our other YouTube Channel TAFishing: https://www.youtube.com/user/TAFishing

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