Live well operation

[Dcats55]

I just recently bought a 1998 Sprint bass boat. I have a question about the Live Wells. The boat has two switches, one says "Live Well", the other "Aerator". It also has two levers, one is "open and close" the other "recirculate and pump out". The live well switch when turned on just recirculates the water already in the well, and so does the recirculate lever. It stuck me as strange that there would be an open, which lets the water freely flow out of the wells, and a pump out which in a sense does the same. My problem is there is no way to get water in, other then leaving it open and then it only fills a couple inches, so I have to close it and use a bucket to fill. Question is does any one think I could reverse the pump for the recirculate and pump out, to some how pump in? Or perhaps get a different pump that would work? I haven't tried any thing yet, didn't want to pull all the batteries out and start digging around till I knew if its workable.

Thanks

[slonezp]

Close the pump out and turn on the aerator

[WIGuide]

It all depends on what valves are installed and where. You should be able to get it to fill by having your recirc pump on recirc and having your "livewell" pump on with the valve either open or closed. 

The reason they have an open valve, is to drain your livewell. Pump outs are usually for tournament fishing as it give you an easy access to fill your weigh in bag instead of crawling under your boat to get to the drain. Also, for those of us that have weather that gets below zero, you don't want to leave water in hoses as the water will freeze/expand and wreak havoc on the whole system. 

[Dcats55]

Thank you both, I tried a couple ways, didn't think that if might be a combination lock  I will give them a try this week end and let you know.

Thanks again.

David

[Dcats55]

Ok, finally got into it, turns out the pump looked to have over heated? There was a bulge on one side of it and the impeller wouldn't turn a lick. I ordered a replacement motor, the Mayfair live well pumps are pretty cool, easy pop out and in. Thanks again for the replies.

[WIGuide]

Glad you figured it out!

 

[S. Sass]

I feel your pain I just went through the entire system on my boat. It was a mess as far as how the system was on mine. Someone had decided to disconnect the front livewell to make a cooler out of it. The aerator motor on mine was locked up so they hooked the fill hose to the aerator nozzle and set the timer to work the fill pump to recirculate.

 I had to remove the entire front and rear decks to repair it all correctly. But I know what I have under there now. So it was good since my redneck work is better than the redneck that did the mess before.