Livewell Plumbing Rehab

[crazyjoeclemens]

Well, my initial thoughts were to wait until winter to do any real boat work, but I'm apparently not capable of leaving anything alone...so I'm already planning to rehab the livewell plumbing on my Ranger sometime soon.  I haven't even had a chance to look at whats there (that would require pulling the batteries and lifting the battery tray out), but I was wondering if anyone had any resources I could look at for tips and suggestions on how to get started.  The boat is a 1991, and I'm sure some things have changed since then, so I would like to do some research on what manufacturers are doing now and what kind of parts/systems are available.

Thanks!

[crypt]

did my r80 last year.everything is available at any good boat supply shop.I used automotive heater hose for tubing.it's made for engine cooling systems so live well plumbing will not hurt at all.also way cheaper than marine grade live well hose. just take your time  and pay attention to the routing of the hoses,don't want to kink them. post if you need any help.

[WIGuide]

Ranger keeps their pretty simple and straightforward. They use flowrite valves. When I had my 86 320V The rear wouldn't hold water that well, so I thought I was going to have to order a new valve, but flowrite still sells a rebuild kit. Design has remained pretty much unchanged over the years. It's all pretty easy to do. What is it you're wanting to change about the system?

[crazyjoeclemens]

8 minutes ago, WIGuide said:

Ranger keeps their pretty simple and straightforward. They use flowrite valves. When I had my 86 320V The rear wouldn't hold water that well, so I thought I was going to have to order a new valve, but flowrite still sells a rebuild kit. Design has remained pretty much unchanged over the years. It's all pretty easy to do. What is it you're wanting to change about the system?

I wasn't looking to make any radical changes.  I'm just not familiar with boat plumbing components, and thought I might need to do some research to find out if there are new, more efficient systems being used today.  If things haven't changed much since 1991, it should be a pretty straightforward job.

As far as things I know I need to do - at the very least, the valves need rebuilt or replaced.  It doesn't matter whether I have the levers set to fill or empty - water will run in and out of the livewells in either position.  When I hit the switch for the aeration pumps, nothing happens, so I need to check wiring on those.  However, If I'm going to dig into it, I figured I might as well replace the pumps and all of the hoses that I can easily reach.  While I'm digging around in there, I'm also definitely going to upgrade to an automatic bilge pump as well.  I tested the original, and it still moves a lot of water, but it makes an unpleasant sound when it starts up.  That's one thing I consider critical equipment, and I don't want it to crap out when I need it most.  Now, the boat has both front and rear livewells.  The one thing I haven't decided is whether I should rehab both, or if I should just do the rear well and use the front for dry storage.

[Kevin22]

Yours will have simple plumbing, pump to livewell and then livewell to drain and livewell to overflow. Just as "simple" as removing all of your decking/flooring that coveres the hoses and running new hoses. Takes about 8 hours to do it, i did it this spring on a 97 ranger. On mine i had to remove all the carpet to remove the flooring as well.. If yours is the same, you will need another hour to lay carpet. 

be sure you use smooth tubing and not bilge tubing. 

[Scott F]

If the bilge pump runs but just makes an unusual noise, it could easily have a foreign object like a piece of a plastic worm or a stick caught in the pump. 

[WIGuide]

You'll definitely need a pump rebuild kit then or a new valve. Neither is expensive and can be found on the flowrite website. You might also want to consider upgrading the spray head to one of the new style flowrite ones that mixes air with the water to provide better aeration, or an underwater venturi valve that does the same thing similar to a hot tub jet. If you're looking to keep it simple, I'd just replace it with the above water version. If you're looking to fish tournaments, consider adding the pump out version instead to fill your weigh bags. I don't know which model boat you have, but I'd probably get rid of the front livewell. It'll give you more storage, or you can use it as a cooler.

 

As for your pump not working, it could be the switch, fuse, or the pump could be burnt out. You'll want to look and see if it's the cartridge style pump. I don't know if those were available in 91 yet or not, but if it is one, you can just buy the insert and wire that up if it turns out to be the pump, it's twist in twist out. 

It shouldn't take very long to get the job done if you're just redoing what they have done. The hardest part is reaching it all, but estimated time would be 3-4 hours

40 minutes ago, Kevin22 said:

Yours will have simple plumbing, pump to livewell and then livewell to drain and livewell to overflow. Just as "simple" as removing all of your decking/flooring that coveres the hoses and running new hoses. Takes about 8 hours to do it, i did it this spring on a 97 ranger. On mine i had to remove all the carpet to remove the flooring as well.. If yours is the same, you will need another hour to lay carpet. 

be sure you use smooth tubing and not bilge tubing. 

You must have an aluminum model correct? There wouldn't be deck removal involved in a fiberglass boat as it's all glassed in. 

[Kevin22]

It was aluminum. I thought I read aluminum in here somewhere as well? Guess I'm just going nuts!