Pressure Water Pump

Last week Pachuca's fresh water pressure pump gave a hiccup: it stopped running but when I switched to the alternate water tank it started working again.  I was relieved that the pump was working OK but in the back of my mind I knew that these hiccups don't just happen then go away, and sure enough this week the problem manifested itself as "hard", as they say in the industry.

Rather than run out in a  panic to find a replacement I engaged in an inspection of the electrical environment, and whether the pump was receiving 12V of electrical power.  This led me into a journey into the rabbit hole, as it were, which took up a lot of my time and energy but came out OK in the end.

Pressure Pump at Left, Shower  Drain Pump Above

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I was getting low readings of 8-9V delivered to the pump then in tracking the wiring I ran into the problem that when the boat's electrical system had been completely redesigned in NZ in 2008 a floor had been  installed to support starboard battery that obscured everything below it.  This is typical of professionals:  They want to do the work fast, well, durable at the sacrifice of maintainability.  Specifically, they set up wonderful systems satisfying the aforementioned criteria  at the sacrifice of the burden placed on some poor bastard sometime in the future.  What I found in this case was a fuse hidden below the level of the platform that had been set up in NZ in 2008 to support the heave "D" size port gel battery.  I removed the battery at great risk to my L4/L5 back problem then had to hack saw through part of the heavy ply-board support of the battery in order to drag out the fuse from below the floor.

Pressure pump and battery removed.

On another front, I powered the pump directly from the starboard
battery and found it to be DOA, or "Deceased", as the police say, rather than "Dead as a Door Nail".

I do not like systems where there is no "give".  In this case, there was no slack in the wiring servicing the pump.  It took me hours to track down the wiring underneath the sole (flooring) to the point where I could release slack at the end of the run.  This required the lifting of many sole boards. 

Eventually, and mysteriously, I wound up reading over 14V at the connecting wires and after some testing I concluded that the pump, which I had installed in Adelaide in 2008 during the outbound leg of the circumnavigation had to be replaced. I went to Yacht Grot and purchased a replacement Jabsco model 319395-0092  water pressure pump, which appeared to be identical to the Jabsco that I was replacing.   The pump puts out 2.9 gal/min (10.9 l/min) to 50 psi for what in this day an age regard as a modest $140.

Starboard Battery Out of Way on Water Tank

By the end of the day I had a bloody thumb and a working fresh water pump.

In doing the work I was pleasantly surprised at the effective way in which I had prepared both the port and starboard batteries for a possible rollover in the vicinity of Cape Horn.  The starboard battery had two straps and one board holding it down and the port  battery had two boards holding it down.

Port Battery Firmly Strapped Down