Other Just for laughs...grounding a bilge pump.

jetpilot808

jetpilot808

Location
USA
I had to laugh at myself, so I brought the ski inside the house over winter to work on it and could not figure out why my brand new bilge pump would not turn over. Well, when they say ground the wire they mean ground the whole ski, it just won't ground on the carpet....Get errrr done!:haha:
 
jetpilot808

jetpilot808

Location
USA
Correct, the ski was sitting on a dolly cart , but was isolated by wooden foors and the carpet so there was no ground on the ski no matter what you touched with a tester light. So if you got a bilge pump grounded to the motor instead to the negative post of your battery then it will not ground. The ski it self will turn over because it was grounded to the battery but no bilge. Makes sense?
 
Matt_E

Matt_E

steals hub caps from cars
Site Supporter
Location
at peace
jetpilot808 said:
Correct, the ski was sitting on a dolly cart , but was isolated by wooden foors and the carpet so there was no ground on the ski no matter what you touched with a tester light. So if you got a bilge pump grounded to the motor instead to the negative post of your battery then it will not ground. The ski it self will turn over because it was grounded to the battery but no bilge. Makes sense?
Click to expand...


No. You're making my head hurt.
The term GROUND has nothing to do with the surface you walk on.
Electrical ground is simply the point in the electrical circuit that is at zero volts. It is a reference. In the case of a PWC, grounded means connected to the negative battery post. The engine block is grounded because of the heavy gauge negative battery cable connecting it to the negative battery terminal. The ebox is grounded because the stator harness connects a small gauge wire to the engine block.

So....I'm not sure why you think you need the actual ground you put your feet on to make your pump work.

Again, electrical ground is simply the negative battery terminal. The bilge pump needs nothing else (well, the positive terminal, as well)
 
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jetpilot808

jetpilot808

Location
USA
Matt_E said:
No. You're making my head hurt.
The term GROUND has nothing to do with the surface you walk on.
Electrical ground is simply the point in the electrical circuit that is at zero volts. It is a reference. In the case of a PWC, grounded means connected to the negative battery post. The engine block is grounded because of the heavy gauge negative battery cable connecting it to the negative battery terminal. The ebox is grounded because the stator harness connects a small gauge wire to the engine block.

So....I'm not sure why you think you need the actual ground you put your feet on to make your pump work.

Again, electrical ground is simply the negative battery terminal. The bilge pump needs nothing else (well, the positive terminal, as well)
Click to expand...

Oh boy, this is suposse to make you laugh. I don't know the exact reasons and really don't care. I connect all my bilge pumps to the motor for ground, why? I don't know, but I'm realy sorry, I will never do it again. All I know is that the pump would not run inside the house, or the whole engine would not work as grounding point. As soon as I moved that outside it worked just fine.
Lighten up people.
 
A

aramis

Location
Rochester, NY
jetpilot808 said:
As soon as you put the cart on concrete floor in the garage everything lights up like x-mas.
Click to expand...

Well, you've got a problem then since water is not made out of concrete.

What exactly do you expect to pump with this bilge if it only works on your garage floor????????????

1) bilge + goes to fuse attached to battery +
2) bilge - goes to one side of switch
3) other side of switch goes to battery - (or e-box ground, or engine block, it's all the same)
 
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