Checking your seacock

[pigbike]

I checked my seacock and found that the handle wouldn't rotate and was frozen open. I also found the factory hose was very soft where it attaches to the seacock. I was putting off checking due to the hard to reach location, but knew I had to bite the bullet and do it. Glad I did it before using the boat.

I cut off the old hose and sprayed down into the fitting along with the handle shaft with Liquid wrench. Waited 30 mins and worked the handle a little and it freed up the valve. Working nice and smooth now.

I then replaced the hose with 3/4" ID braided vinyl tubing that I bought at HD. I guess that is a good choice. I also put a very light bead of 5200 on the end of the tubing to seal it. New S/S double clamps finished that end off.

The tubing goes to my baitwell/washdown pump which just seems to lay in the bottom of the bilge. Is this the way it was meant too be, or did someone before me change the location.???

Thanks
Roy

[gran398]

Good work on the seacock. The 5200 is best used as a bedding agent below the waterline. It won't adhere to vinyl.

More importantly...is the diaphragm pump (washdown pump) just laying there in the bilge?

[seabob4]

Can't speak for your pump location Roy, but I CAN speak about this...EXERCISING  YOUR SHUT-OFF VALVES!!!

Every week, always open and close your valves several times, even when not using the boat.  The handles, in conjunction with the seats and the ball in the valve, take a "set".  Crap, even the most minute, builds up around all the moving parts.  Leave it go long enough, and you'll need a breaker bar to budge that sumbeetch!

Trust me on this one.  And the last thing you want to have happen is to have the hose off the valve burst or crack, and you have no way of closing the valve...

[pigbike]

I was afraid that the valve might seized to the point of no return. Lucked out on that one.  I don't know if the PO ever moved it, but I will make a point to work it a bit.

I didn't know if I should put 5200 on the hose or not, but figured it wouldn't hurt. Might not work on the vinyl, but it sounded good at the time.

From what I read on the baitwell pumps they must be located below the water line. Guess they can't self prime, so maybe they just lay on the bottom of the bilge. Maybe someone with a 215 DC can advise where theirs is located.

[seabob4]

Some baitwell pumps are not self priming, therefore they need to be located below the waterline.  Some are, so they can be located higher up...

[Circle Hooked]

Another good tip, I keep some wooden plugs in the right sizes i can get to real quick in the bilge, if a hose or whatever fails I'm covered, very cheap insurance.

[gran398]

On the 5200...you went the extra mile, so good deal

The livewell/washdown  pump:

There are two different kinds, entirely different. Diaphragm and open flow (Rule)

The diaphragm pump is loud, and pulls 7 heavy amps. Low flow, but will self-prime and pull to a 12 foot head.  Expensive. You can mount it anywhere, and in theory....can be mounted nearly 12 feet ABOVE the waterline.

The Rule pump comparatively:

 Low current drain, high pumping capacity, but will NOT self prime. A lot less money. Must be mounted below the waterline, in the lowest part of the bilge. But nevertheless, still needs to be mounted/tied down.

If using a Rule-style pump....make sure you have a clean clam shell thru-hull pickup with working seacock feeding this pump. Will prime as you get on plane via the forced-water clamshell pickup. After the seacock...plumb the intake hose so it runs downhill to the pump in the bilge. A sidewards entry to the pump is best, on its side, flat to the bilge.

If using a Water Puppy style diaphragm pump...mount it belowdecks in the stern  (its loud)....and make sure (as Bob states in the interest of safety) that the seacock is functioning. All internal pumps require for ease of use and safety  a 3/4 inch thru-hull clamshell pickup, dedicated seacock above.

[pigbike]

The pump I have I believe is a Shurflo. The markings are not readable, but it is red white and blue. I don't know if it's original to the boat or a replacement pump. It runs quiet.  I have the stock seacock that came on the boat, which is just a hole in the hull, no clamshell.

I'll fiddle around with it when I put the boat in the water, if it doesn't do the job, I can replace it. I read somewhere that it is better to replace it with a Johnson pump with more volume and pressure. Not sure what model that is but I'll find it.

Does anyone have a photo of the fresh water washdown hose on a 215 dc. Mine has a replacement garden hose sprayer. Looks funny, works good.

[seabob4]

Red, white, and blue would be a Rule pump...

And in my opinion, stay away from Johnson pumps, regardless of higher numbers.  For the most part, junk..

[seabob4]

Pig,
If you really want to set up your livewell/washdown systems right, you'll want to have 2 pumps.  The livewell pump should be a dual port like a Shurflo Bait Sentry or a Rule Tournament series.  The bottom port feeds the washdown pump, Shurflo Pro-Blaster 4.0 is a good one to use.  Try and mount the washdown pump in as dry a place as you can, as it seems to be exposure to moisture and actual water  that does these pumps in quickly...

[pigbike]

The pump I have is a dual port but only one port is used and the gray diverter valve decides whether it does to the livewell or washdown. The second port has a plug in it. Pump looks like the Shurflo Piranna pump. It is blue and white (not red white and blue like I stated).

Is it better to use both ports instead of one ??? I would need two valves to use both ports then.

[seabob4]

The pump I have is a dual port but only one port is used and the gray diverter valve decides whether it does to the livewell or washdown. The second port has a plug in it. Pump looks like the Shurflo Piranna pump. It is blue and white (not red white and blue like I stated).

Is it better to use both ports instead of one ??? I would need two valves to use both ports then.

No, the dual port simply screws on top of the shut-off valve, the lower port doesn't go through the pump, it simply is a feed for the second pump.  One intake serves both pumps.

The reason you have a dual port pump that is serving both as a livewell pump and as a washdown pump was economics on the part of Genmar.  Cheaper to install the Bosworth Sea-Lect diverter (Y) valve and a couple feet of hose than to rig the boats with a separate pump for washdown.  Even the big Ospreys and Explorers were set up this way.  Called price point.  For instance, at Proline, all boats 23 and under got a single pump to perform both services.  They were even so cheap as to simply use a tee fitting to branch off to the livewell head and the washdown bib.  All boats 24 and up got separate livewell and washdown pumps, using the dual port to feed the Pro-Blaster...

[flounderpounder225]

well one of my over-winter projects is to cut a hatch in the aft bulkhead of my fishbox (like Pete did), so I can access my bilge pump and the seacock, as it is right now, I couldn't get to the seacock if I needed to... you just can't reach that far down through the starboard aft access hatch, unless you have arms like an orangutan, and a CV Joint for an elbow.

[seabob4]

well one of my over-winter projects is to cut a hatch in the aft bulkhead of my fishbox (like Pete did), so I can access my bilge pump and the seacock, as it is right now, I couldn't get to the seacock if I needed to... you just can't reach that far down through the starboard aft access hatch, unless you have arms like an orangutan, and a CV Joint for an elbow. :lol

I have one of those...

Marc, you are pretty much correct.  When we were building Ospreys, the hull riggers attached and secured the hose to the shut-off valve barb, as there was NO WAY anyone was going to be able to do that after the boat was decked.  Part of my job doing back-end electrical was to attach same hose to the fishbox pump...that was a treat, let me tell you!  Damn near upside down in that opening to get to it!

[Circle Hooked]

well one of my over-winter projects is to cut a hatch in the aft bulkhead of my fishbox (like Pete did),

Marc because of Pete I did that as well, I highly recommend it.