Switch wiring for water tank SR17

[Wrangler2744]

I'm going thru my SR 17 to get ready for the year.  My water tank in the cuddy needs to be drained and in another post you guys gave me good pointers on how to do that.  Now, I was cleaning out dirt dobber nests under the backside near the switch that turns the water pump on and discovered that one wire coming from the switch has nothing attached to it but has a fuse inline.  What is this? Should the wire with fuse go somewhere?  I will attach a pic of what I'm talking about.

BTW, is this tank in the cuddy called a "freshwater" tank (I think I called it the "water renewal" tank in a previous post and now I think that was wrong nomenclature).

Interestingly, while the switch turned on the pump earlier, this morning it didn't.  So I'm not sure what's wrong.

Howard

[La-Z-Buoy]

Howard,

"Normally" the fused wire goes to the item being powered. That wire is the positive wire to the pump. Look around. Somehow it got pulled apart hence the pump doesn't work. The other option is that the fused wire is coming from the battery to the switch. Same results, one just never know how the previous owner(s) have wired things. Of the two wires on the switch one is to the battery and one to the pump. Either way there should be a wire hanging around in the vicinity of that disconnected wire. Good luck.

Richard

[StreamFixer]

It looks like a pump with a red wire below your hand in the picture?  That would likely be the water pump.  As La-Z suggested, the wires may have been pulled apart at some point. 

As he suggested, see if you can find a loose wire.  If you have a meter, you should check the wire shown in your hand. 

If there is a good fuse in place turn the meter to DC, at least 12 volt, put the positive lead on the end of the wire you are holding and the negative to a ground.  Cycle the switches until you find one that causes the meter to register.  As suggested, that could easily be your pump electrical feed.  Otherwise, you might take a look at your running lights?  I think those may be the most likely candidates in the cuddy area.

Let us know what you find.

StreamFixer

[Markshoreline]

Wrangler,
Just last week I tackled the same problem.  I traced my positive wire to a hole in the liner, but before it disappeared I noticed that it had 4 connectors and a fuse in the small section between the hole and the switch- and no power.  Since these tanks are installed during the boat assembly, the wiring and the hose run between the liner and the hull then filled with foam so you can't get to them or pull them out one end.

I bought a new switch with  a rubber cover, 25 feet of red and black 16 gauge marine wire, a proper inline fuse and had already purchased a new pump (although my 22 year old one still worked, the leads from it were black with corrosion).  Then I ran the pos and neg directly to my busses near the battery, installed the fuse with heat shrink connectors, ran pos to the switch and both wires up under the gunwale, past the saddle tanks into the cuddy then drilled a couple of holes and dropped the wires down to the motor.   Works like a champ.  Sometimes, it's just not worth messing with old wire because it will fail again.

[allpauwork]

When I investigated my fresh water pump issues, I noticed the hot wire originated at the battery in the stern along with a switch in the motor splash well.  I rewired the positive and negative wiring to the buss bars I installed in the dash to eliminate any wires going to the stern along with a switch on the dash panel.  It worked until the next outing when the pump burnt up!    :nono:  So, I just removed the tank, pump and wiring as I really didn't need them anyway for my style of fishing.  I just carry two liter bottles of water in the cavity where the tank was.

[La-Z-Buoy]

So Howard, what did you find? 

[fishing eagle]

It looks like you accidently pulled the power feed wire (positive) apart. The blue splice connector should have a wire that goes back to the battery somewhere there in the stern area. I would also replace the feed wire so that there is no longer a splice connector or at least use  waterproof splice or liquid tape to seal it.

This is another excellent example why not to use a standard butt splice or other regular crimp on connectors on a vessel.

[Wrangler2744]

So Howard, what did you find? 

Unfortunately I found another problem that has occupied my time (and money) so I have postponed looking further into this issue.

BTW, I didn't pull anything "out" of that red wire.  There wasn't anything there to begin with (although I would have thought there should have been).  I look further into this later.

Thanks for the replies.

Howard

[Markshoreline]

Wrangler,
I found mine dangling, unattached as well.
The wire that belonged to it was up at the interior top of the splashwell up by the transom.  There was a little hole in the liner and the + and - wires came out.  I connected them but there was no power so I replaced the entire circuit, because I had fixed the old wires twice before...

[Wrangler2744]

Mystery solved by markshoreline.  Finally got around to digging into this issue and found the red wire up under the splash pan near the transom.  Butt connection let it slip out when I was removing the sides that block the gas tank and I did not notice it.  Changed out the round glass fuse with a new automotive type spade fuse and a rubber enclosed fuse holder.  Everything works now and with the new fuse, improved IMHO.

Onward & upward!

Howard

[allpauwork]

My fresh water switch and wiring were toast so decided to eliminate the wires going to the switch in the stern and rewired the pump to the bus bars (pos and neg) that I installed in the dash along with a switch on the dash.  All went well until my first outing then the pump burnt up.  Bummer!