fjohnp

Also, here's some photos and a write up of the upgrade project I did to see my distribution upgrade. https://www.wakegarage.com/projects-archive/ballast-projects/ballast-solenoid-upgrade-distribution-r161/

Interesting find! Makes sense that they used a common wiring harness for all the boats. Cool that you're really digging into your boat and learning more about it. Your manual valves would definitely work, but I don't think you're too far from having an automated system for not a lot of investment. I'm in Canada so some of the costs are different, but with your access to wakemakers, amazon, and your local sprinkler supply store (not Home Depot or Lowes) it should come together pretty quickly in the off season. So my ballast set up would be similar - I have one main pump (located near the v-drive under the back seat cushion) that pushes water to the solenoids for Port, Centre, and Starboard. That distribution is mounted to the back of the bench seat in the engine compartment. When any of those switches on the dash are push to the fill position, it opens the corresponding solenoid and then turns on the single fill pump. When either of those switches are pushed to empty, they would then start the independent pump found on the port bag, centre tank, or starboard bag (originally, there were plastic tanks used for the port and starboard ballast). My single fill pump is not wired to be reversible. My rear bags have a fill hose from the solenoid, a vent hose (which I added a check valve from the sprinkler store to aid with draining the bags) to prevent overfilling, and then empty hose which runs from the independent drain pump to the side of the boat. Have a look on the side of your boat to see how many drain outlets you have and if you would need to add more (If memory serves, there's one empty and one drain port per zone with four on the port side and three on the starboard size - that extra is for the bilge). I'm guessing if you add the double throw switches to the existing 5 wire connectors, they'll work for starting the single pump (could always pull the centre switch and try it on those others as a no-cost test). If that's the case, then order two additional labelled switches and two cartridge pumps to drain your bags, build a solenoid distribution (I'd suggest some brass normally closed 12 volt valves) off of the single fill pump, wire the solenoids, and running the hoses to the bags. I'm still thinking that the wiring for your drain pumps are around somewhere - perhaps do a process of elimination with the colours of the wires off the switch? Otherwise, running the 12 volt wires for the drain pumps from the switches shouldn't be overly difficult. I'm guessing there are some good schematics around based on your switch to use as a guide. I think wiring in independent filling pumps will definitely make filling/draining faster but you'll have to rip into the existing wiring harness or rewire from the fuse box to make sure you've got enough juice to do it. Also, adding two extra reversible pumps isn't cheap. All depends on how ambitious you want to be. Ideas on your additional parts (not confirmed as the right parts for you, but to get you looking in the right direction: - Cartridge pump for emptying your ballast bags: https://www.amazon.ca/SPX-FLOW-US-Johnson-Cartridges/dp/B00MYSQ3B6/ref=sr_1_13?dchild=1&keywords=Johnson+Pump&qid=1608326644&sr=8-13 - 12 volt normally closed valve: https://www.amazon.ca/uxcell®-2W160-15-Normally-Closed-Solenoid/dp/B01M2WZ35V/ref=sr_1_4_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=12+volt+normally+closed+solenoid&qid=1608326736&sr=8-4-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzT1QwM0tPSURHWE9LJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwOTA1MTY0MUpYUERBM0M2SFpFSCZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNjM1MTMyTEUzWVgzSTlQUUdXJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ - Rocker Switch: https://www.wakemakers.com/supra-moomba-ballast-switch.html - Rocker Switch Cover: https://www.wakemakers.com/ballast-switch-cover-upgrade-package.html

I'd maybe look around to see what system would have been added at the factory for that year to see what options would have been available for additional ballast. I'm not sure if at that point they would have used either a series of 3 solenoids to distribute water from your existing pump (like mine) or if it had 3 separate pumps for each ballast zone. With that info, it wouldn't surprise me that the wiring is there for the switches, solenoids, etc as they could have used a standard wiring harness for that model of boats at the time. They could just add or subtract depending on the options chosen by the dealer/buyer. I've seen this before with past vehicles where the trailer wiring was in place, but tucked away and all I had to do was add some fuses and dig the wires out. I'd definitely have a look under that panel below the throttle to see if there's any unused connectors ready for switches, look at the fuse block under the helm to see if there's wiring to it for the ballast zones (my fuse block was labeled), and also check at the back of the lockers on each side of your engine to see if there's wires run there (my wires run along with other wires kinda behind/above the rub rail) that would be used to power the drain pumps (like the yellow one shown above). If you do have the wiring in place, it may just take some time trace what's what using a volt meter and then plan it out. It's all a fun mystery to figure out. If nothing else, you get to know your boat more intimately. Looking forward to reading about your findings.

If you're looking to keep it reasonable, you could build a new distribution centre off of your existing pump using always closed valves, some simple wiring, and extra switches on the bank below your throttle. I replaced my sprinkler valves with 12 Volte Brass Always ($25 each on Amazon I think) Closed Valves. While the wiring was there already for each of the ballast zones/pump/valves, 12 volt wiring is pretty easy to run between your switches and the valves. For venting, I used some simple check valves on the vent lines which helped when I was pumping out the bags - helped to create a bit of an air lock in the bags. Here's the link for my project: https://www.wakegarage.com/projects-archive/ballast-projects/ballast-solenoid-upgrade-distribution-r161/ For pumping out the water, you'd do two more similar 12 volt pumps like the one shown above. I think for both you'd use those double throw switches. Drilling vent lines and pump out holes above the water line is pretty easy - just use masking tape to measure it all out and then drill your hole with a holesaw in reverse and take your time. Fittings are easy to find. If I was upgrading it all again without adding extra pumps, I'd look at up grading my main pump for something with higher volume and then increase the tubing size to the valves, 1" valves, and 1" tubes to each of the bags to help improve filing time. You could like go larger than that depending on your through hull size..

Usually I start with unplugging the power and trying a restart. But I'd call the Perfect Pass office as their customer service is top notch being a small business. I've called them a few times and they've always been able to walk me through things quickly!

I upgraded my solenoids using something similar to what you posted at the beginning of this summer. The original sprinkler valves were leaking and making it nearly impossible to direct the flow of water. I provided a full write up here: https://www.wakegarage.com/projects-archive/ballast-projects/ballast-solenoid-upgrade-distribution-r161/ While the boat is all put away for the winter now, I'll say that the system worked flawlessly this summer! I kinda wish I would have done it a year or two earlier. If I was doing it again, the only thing I would have considered would be to upgrade to 1" plumbing all around. It's all 1" plumbing up to the distribution, but 3/4" from the solenoids to the bag (factory set up). It would have been an easy switch to increase hose size at the same time to improve fill speeds. Something to consider depending on your set up. Hope this helps!

Not sure anything to specifically suggest other than to call Perfect Pass. They're awesome with their customer service and can walk you through the diagnostic process.

I had a similar situation when I bought my boat - turns out the after market hour meter was broken and stuck at 200 hours. I was reading up on the new perfect pass style system and came across this in the user manual: If the newer style multi-line Perfect Pass is installed, power up the boat (not start it) and with the Perfect Pass powered on, press the Menu and up button at the same time. That will show a new menu and you can scroll down to through the "System Info" which will pull the hour meter from the boat engine (I believe). http://www.perfectpass.com/sites/all/themes/perfectpass - Copy/images/wakeboardpro65mechanical.pdf - look at page 6. Alternatively, if you do take it dealer they can pull the info from the engine including engine hours and the amount of time spent at each RPM stage. You'll get a better idea of if its been run mostly towing, idling, etc. I would say this is a good option to know if the hours are creeping up for above average annual use in your area. Perhaps its got higher hours, but they were spent mostly idling to keep the batteries charged up for the stereo vs. a lot of operation running under load to tow. Hope this helps.

I have a 2007 Centurion Lightning and had a similar set up and issue with the solenoids on my boat - water going everywhere and long fill up times! No amount of cleaning and tinkering on mine made them work any better. Two options which I did and you may want to consider: 1. Upgrade your pump with something with higher capacity (ie jabsco water puppy) - this helped improved my fill times, but I think it ultimately was too much pressure on the stock solenoids and lead to the water leakage issues. 2. Put in new always closed solenoids which will better direct the water (see my post here: https://www.wakegarage.com/projects-archive/ballast-projects/ballast-solenoid-upgrade-distribution-r161/) . 3. If you're putting in new solenoids, you could also consider upgrading from the stock 3/4" tubing to 1" hose. Even though mine was 1" in through the stock solenoid, it was 3/4" tubing from the solenoid to the bags. In hindsight, I should have gotten 1" solenoids and then sized up the hoses and fittings to the bags to 1" to further improve flow rates. I also run a homemade suckgate which did make a big difference in my wave and am continually experimenting with the speed (as per the Mission video referenced above) to make the pocket and push better.

From experience at the Osyoos crossing, having your registration information on hand is what's required, but the US side is rarely concerned about it. More than anything they'll likely want to x-ray your boat on the way into the US (mine was x-rayed 9 out of 10 times), so allow for extra crossing time as I've had to wait up to 30 minutes in the past. I also usually cross the boarder without a cover on the boat to demonstrate transparency. On the way back into Canada, having your registration information on-hand is always a good idea especially if you don't have the registration decals on your boat. While the waterways are all connected on Lake Osoyoos, they may want to do an aquatic mussel check as they're starting to get more aggressive on slowing down the spread of them.

Call Robby at Skylon and he can give you all the details. He was awesome to deal with regarding communication, problem solving, and product knowledge!