New Pump Installation

Now its time for the installation of the two new Johnson Ultra Reversible ballast pumps.  I began by installing the hose and fittings starting from the intake and working my way up to the pumps.  Shortly after the intake, I placed a 1"barb x 3/4" female thread tee in the line.  This will be an access point where I can hook up a garden hose for testing the system and for sucking antifreeze through the system when winterizing.  I hate crawling under the boat with a fake-a-lake.

Here is a picture showing the parts required.  Tee, 3/4" NPT x 3/4" garden hose thread adapter, 3/4" garden hose cap.

The garden hose cap makes a good seal because it has a rubber bushing like a standard garden hose as shown below.

Be sure to use pipe thread tape along the threads of the adapter before you thread it into the tee.  Thread tape needs to be used for any metal to plastic thread connections.  Below is a picture of these parts installed.

Once that was complete, I mounted the two Johnson pumps.  One to each sidewall under the rear seat bench.  You'll need to make a trip to the hardware store to get some mounting screws since the Johnson's surprisingly do not come with any screws.  If I remember right, I was able to use 1" #8 screws.  I reused some of the stock 1" hose for part of this as you might notice in the pictures.  Just work your way installing the sections of hose and fittings from the intake up to each pump. Be sure to install the check valves the right direction so that the water can be redirected overboard when emptying.  This was shown in the ballast diagram on the "Solution" post of this blog.

Here is a picture showing one of the installed pumps along with the check valve, tee, and elbow used to redirect the water when emptying. This picture shows the empty line installed but I actually held off on doing that until later for reasons I'll mention when I get to that point.  We'll also complete the electrical wiring at a later time.

Next, I ran a short piece of hose from the outlet side of the pump and attached a Y fitting on the end.  This Y fitting is where the main line will split between the manifold and the auxiliary hose.  One auxiliary hose splits off of each pump in my design.  Having two aux lines isolated between pumps will give me the flexibility to be emptying one aux sac while filling another.  This will come in handy when switching the ballast weight from one side of the boat to the other.

Below is a picture of the Y fitting.  One leg of the Y will go up to the manifold and the other will go the the aux line which will be attached later.  I chose to use a Y fitting here rather than a tee because I felt like it would help distribute the flow a little better between the hoses. When using a tee here, others have experienced that the force of the water coming out of the pump makes it so that very little water is able to go up the top of the tee....it all wants to shoot straight through.  This Y fitting should help avoid that a little.

Once your Y fitting is attached, you can then run a section of hose up to the manifold.  Be sure to tighten the hose clamps on your Ys securely.  If you don't then water can escape when the line is pressurized.  This is just due to the design of the barbs on the Y fitting.