370AC - Bilge High Water warning light came on ??

[LimaBravo]

Hey Club SeaRay!

Here's another one from the new guy: Today while cruising Lake Michigan, my Systems Monitor display panel lighted up the "bilge high water" red light. It came on after a total of over an hour and half of cruising, 20 min on plane cruise, and then a solid hour of slow cruise (1200 rpm say 5kts), then 10 min of on plane cruise, then BAM "bilge high water" light comes on.

I hit both FWD and AFT bilge pumps, and it goes out. I turn off the pumps and the warning light never comes on again over the course of 30+ minutes. (the remainder of the cruise, some 20kts on plane and some at low idle 5kts no wake).

Back at the slip, I look all over ALL the bilges and they are dry. No sign of water anywhere EXCEPT in the Aft Cabin underneath the rear shower / AC sump pump, but not a lot.

I couldn't really find a way to fully inspect the REAR of the bilge? The only thing I can think of is being on plane somehow moved some of this water over that sensor?

QUESTIONS:

- How can I view the aft-most bilge area for water?

- Should there even be water in the aft-most bilge?

- Where is this sensor?

Thanks everyone in advance. I'll gladly accept any ideas please !

 

[sb in gp]

Make sure your fresh water pump is not leaking when running. Mine blew a seal and was spraying water into fwd bilge and eventually tripping the bilge pump/alarm.

 

[cwiert]

On my boat, the "sensor" is the pump itself. With the ignition on, if a pump goes off, I get the warning light on the System Monitor Display. I just had a buddy help me with checking all mine. I went into the bilge and manually turned on each pump, and he saw the lights and buzzer go off for each one at the helm. I'm new to my boat, so I wanted to make sure that warning system still worked.

 

[fwebster]

I think you have 2 problems, not one.

If the manual bilge pump switch activated the regular bilge pumps and your high water (emergency) light was extinguished, then you did have high water in the bilge. So, problem #1 is to find the source of the high water .....with 1.5 hours of running time, be sure to check your shaft seals when the boat is underway. They may leak underway but not leak when the shaft isn't turning.

Problem # 2 is one or more of your regular bilge pump float switches isn't functioning or you would never see the high water pump come on. Further, if the high water light comes on, but the water level didn't go down, then is the high water pump working? You should test each float switch in the bilge compartment where the high water pump is located by manually activating the float. You should hear each pump run as you raise the float.....when you raise the float on the high water pump, you should also hear the warning horn

 

[LimaBravo]

Awesome advice there Frank and John !! I'll get to work on these this weekend and report findings back.

Thanks SO much for taking the time to point me in the right direction.