Bilge Alarm and Light

[Sadey]

While running the river today I decided to test my trim tabs to make sure they still go up and down. I always leave them in the full down position however when I did that, it tripped the bilge alarm and light on the systems monitor panel. I verified my bilge's are as dry as a bone, although not as pristine as Mr. Clarkston’s. Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

[MadHatter53]

I can guess that it was for the aft bilge and you might have had some water somewhere that’s made it to the pump. Have you repeated the trimming at the dock sitting still?

 

[Sadey]

Not a drop in any bilge. The build light has remained on, and the alarm sounds intermittently. But underway or at the dock not a drop of water in the bilge

 

[Kquaine]

If the systems monitoring bilge alarm went off, the systems monitor thinks the high bilge alarm was tripped. I was getting intermittent high bilge alarm warnings with dry bilges as well. I went through and replaced the high water bilge sensors in each of the bilges. Problem solved.

The sensors are normally closed and open upon "sensing" high water levels. I think the contacts were getting corroded and not making a good solid connection. So occasionally I would get alarms that would come and go for no apparent reason. If the problem continues I would recommend changing the sensors out.

 

[whoover]

Out on a limb here but I'm thinking a voltage drop caused the alarm panel to come on. Running the tabs caused a drain.

Walt Hoover

 

[Sadey]

I’m guessing you’re both right. I tested all of the floats on the highwater switches and with the light illuminated it won’t set the audible off anymore. I ended up going into the systems monitor circuit panel and disconnecting the bilge wires. I have lights on my bilge pump switches that will give me the first indication while I’m running the boat. The second one will be wet feet inside the boat. Once I get to our home Marina I’ll go back and test each switch individually to find the culprit. Thanks for the help!

 

[SKYCHENEY]

systems monitor is prone to trip on low voltage

 

[Sadey]

That’s kind of how it reacted. It was while I was running the trim taps through full motion up and down. The issue now is the light won’t go out. Once I get to a spot where I can troubleshoot I’ll just start clipping wires at each water alarm and see which one is the offending switch

 

[Sadey]

One question, what if any different float brand are people using to replace them? Mine seem to work perfectly but as mentioned I suspect it’s a wiring issue.

 

[SKYCHENEY]

One question, what if any different float brand are people using to replace them? Mine seem to work perfectly but as mentioned I suspect it’s a wiring issue.

It may not be the switch or the wiring. Call me. It could be the board

 

[Sadey]

Ed at Sam’s in Fort Lauderdale gave me contact info for someone who is the Systems Monitor panel guru. Spoke with him today. Very simple procedure to determine whether it’s the sensor or the mother board. In my case it was one of my high water alarm floats that’s bad. If it wasn’t one of those then the gentleman said it would be the board. Flat rate $2300 for a completely rebuilt board. He suggested, as well as somebody else here on the forum to just replace all, four in my case, floats so that’s what I’m going to do. Just following up in the event somebody else has an issue with their monitor.

 

[CGHOST4]

Sadey, This is a little off topic, but you stated that you always leave your trim tabs down. With the trim tabs down while docking etc. you are putting an enormous amount of strain on that plastic connection between the piston and the tab should you have to back up suddenly with a lot of power.
I have had to replace mine due to a broken connection and I had to haul the boat. I run the tabs up before docking and close maneuvering, and it is not a bad idea to exercise the pistons.

Caesars Ghost
1980 58YF #472

 

[Sadey]

Good suggestion, must have been quite the experience using that much reverse.

 

[MadHatter53]

My system monitor started to alarm shortly after my spring launch. No lights on the panel but I’m not sure if they ever worked. Silence button does nothing so I had to disconnect the stbd battery bank to quiet things up. I did a visual at the fuses in the stbd Eng room panel labeled sys mon as well as the fuses behind the helm and all looked good. All the floats for each pump operated as they should and the high water alarms looked ok. I did find that when I disconnected the batteries I got a nice spark. I’m heading down this weekend to start pulling fuses etc to find the source of the alarm while hoping it’s not a $2300 circuit board.