1999 285PE Livewell Question- Port Side Vs Starboard

[okstatebass]

Hey Guys

I am finally going to resolve something that has bugged me for awhile- my port side livewell will fill up with the aerator pump with no problems. Once it reaches capacity- the pump shuts off as it should (on auto mode) and I have the two livewell cable controls set to “recirculate” and “closed”. On my boat I have two controls for each livewell that are (open/closed) and (recirculate/pump out)

the problem is- the livewell begins to drain as If it was in pump out mode. Is it possible I have a bad valve that is always keeping it in pump out mode? I have moved the controls back and forth and can observe the levers moving on the valve in both directions- but maybe the lever moving doesn’t rule out a bad valve?

on the starboard side- no problems at all. Controls are set to “recirculate” and “closed” and once the aerator pump stops, the water level does not drop.

I do notice that when I have both livewells trying to fill up at the same time- the port side takes much longer that starboard which leads me to believe it’s pumping out while trying to fill.

any help would be greatly appreciated !

[billnorman1]

Sounds like the flap inside the port valve is defective. It's not unusual for them to leak. The port side would usually go bad first since if you are fishing alone most of the time the port side is used to help balance out your weight on the starboard side.

[okstatebass]

Yeah I’m going to have to check it out. I’m going to fill up the livewell with the hose and see if I can observe anything