Wrenchtamer
New member
Hello all. I am a professional tech working at a big dealership in the PNW. I have a 2018 257 that has developed some really odd ballast issues. I'll try to supply all of the relevant factors.
I replaced the V drive on this unit after which all the electrical functions were working fine. When I brought it back in for summerization only one of the ballast functions on the screen do anything. If I hit the icon for the CENTER ballast pump, it turns on the center AND the transom pump. I pulled the connectors out of the two rear PDMs and put them back in and everything started working. I figured fine, it had a bad connection and let it go.
A day later, the customer calls and says his surf tabs aren't working. I went to look at the unit at the dock and did the same thing again. No surf tab activity, and the same weird ballast pump issue. Futzed with the connector again, starts working again. Packed up, ready to leave and decided to test one more time. No fun. Same odd behavior. Keep in mind that those two pumps that are running are controlled by two different PDMs.
Things I have tried:
I have swapped all three PDMS out for known good ones. No change.
I have disconnected all pumps and attempted to isolate if one pump was shorted and causing the PDM to shut them down. Removing all the loads did not restore any function.
I have swapped the screens (controllers) from the unit and stuck in new ones for testing. No change.
I have ruled out the battery and ground feeds to the PDMs in the boat by disconnecting them and directly connecting power to them with good jumper harnesses. No change.
I have physically, visually and electrically verified the location and condition of all pins at all PDMs.
I am hoping that someone that knows these units very well may have some input. I have no idea what could cause this kind of behavior. I also re-tested the PDMs that I put in the boat for testing after I used them in case you are thinking that hooking them up to the boat killed them and concealed the cause of the issue.
I feel like this has to be something simple, but I have checked literally everything I can think of and I am not new to this. Obviously battery condition and hookup have all been checked, all breakers and grounds have all been checked, as well as ruling out any possible boat harness issue via the methods described above.
I have an ecom cable, (green) so I can run custom programs on the PDMs if anybody has anything that I can use to check them.
Any other info needed just ask. I am scratching my head on this one.
Thanks for any assistance.
I replaced the V drive on this unit after which all the electrical functions were working fine. When I brought it back in for summerization only one of the ballast functions on the screen do anything. If I hit the icon for the CENTER ballast pump, it turns on the center AND the transom pump. I pulled the connectors out of the two rear PDMs and put them back in and everything started working. I figured fine, it had a bad connection and let it go.
A day later, the customer calls and says his surf tabs aren't working. I went to look at the unit at the dock and did the same thing again. No surf tab activity, and the same weird ballast pump issue. Futzed with the connector again, starts working again. Packed up, ready to leave and decided to test one more time. No fun. Same odd behavior. Keep in mind that those two pumps that are running are controlled by two different PDMs.
Things I have tried:
I have swapped all three PDMS out for known good ones. No change.
I have disconnected all pumps and attempted to isolate if one pump was shorted and causing the PDM to shut them down. Removing all the loads did not restore any function.
I have swapped the screens (controllers) from the unit and stuck in new ones for testing. No change.
I have ruled out the battery and ground feeds to the PDMs in the boat by disconnecting them and directly connecting power to them with good jumper harnesses. No change.
I have physically, visually and electrically verified the location and condition of all pins at all PDMs.
I am hoping that someone that knows these units very well may have some input. I have no idea what could cause this kind of behavior. I also re-tested the PDMs that I put in the boat for testing after I used them in case you are thinking that hooking them up to the boat killed them and concealed the cause of the issue.
I feel like this has to be something simple, but I have checked literally everything I can think of and I am not new to this. Obviously battery condition and hookup have all been checked, all breakers and grounds have all been checked, as well as ruling out any possible boat harness issue via the methods described above.
I have an ecom cable, (green) so I can run custom programs on the PDMs if anybody has anything that I can use to check them.
Any other info needed just ask. I am scratching my head on this one.
Thanks for any assistance.