The front livewell on my 1996 268 Stratos does not have a valve to keep the livewell from draining and also doesn't have an overflow line so that recirculation of the water can take place. Does anyone know if this is the way these boats were designed?
Overflow should be in the front corner on the console side up high (duh...lol). It should have a tube/hose coming out routed down the console side. I have a '95 268 and can get ya pic tomorrow.
Thanks I'll look again. How about shutting off the drain for this livewell? is it supposed to be connected in with the rear livewell drain system?
Each live well has a thru transom pump but there is only one valve and it is a simple open and close for the drains. Somewhere the two drains join to the one hose (I think under the rear live well below its drain) and the valve controls if both are open or both are closed. As best I can tell the over flows drain into the bilge. I just cannot see where else the over flow goes, it can't be piped into the drains for the live wells because it you have them closed the overflow is useless except what the over flow hose would hold.
If you have to redo it you could use a flow rite V3 valve is the place of the one that is just open/close. It will give you a recirc option so you can aerate the water without constantly pumping new in and pushing water out the over flows and into the bilge.
If I was going to just use one it would have to be the front I guess, the rear live well is pretty small and 5 of any size are not going in there.
Last edited by old4runner; 11-30-2022 at 03:43 AM.
Sorry, haven't had a chance to investigate this further until now. My Stratos must be an "odd ball" because the front live well only has one inlet (up high on port side), no overflow tube and the drain tube in the bottom of the livewell. I've looked everywhere within the livewell space and their is no overflow tube. I'm starting to wonder if the drain tube is also suppose to function as the inlet tube and fill the livewell from the bottom up. Maybe I need to convert the inlet tube that is up high on the port side to the overflow tube?
Okay so I was a little off as it had been a while since I worked on this one.. These are the drains. Do you have these outlets? The drain inside the front livewell is really high in the front corner. You would have to stick your head in there to see it.
The overflow hoses should run to these.
Front Live Well Drain 1.jpg
268 rear drain.jpg
Water is pumping to the inlet in the upper front corner of my livewell. The "drain" outlet is in the bottom of the livewell and the problem is that their is no valve to keep the livewell from draining. Sounds like the hoses may be reversed on my front live well. Sounds like water should be entering the live well through the bottom of the live well and overflowing through the outlet in the upper corner of the live well. Previous owners must have messed around with tubing. I do have the discharge outlet on the side of my boat as you are showing, my rear live well discharges out the side as it is running and adding new water. Should both the front livewell and rear livewell both be controlled by "open / close" switch near the gear shifter?
Just noticed that the pictures you attached are very helpful. My stratos 268 does not have the overflow drain location on the port side like your picture shows. I only have the overflow drain location on the starboard side like your picture shows. That must mean the front live well has to connect to the same overflow outlet that the rear livewell uses.
If you really do not have an overflow I do not know what to tell you other than add one.
I took these this morning. First pic is of the sprayer on the front wall to the starboard side of the livewell. The second one is the overflow on the starboard wall of the livewell almost in the very rear. The third pic is from the storage comparment in front of the console. That is the hose form the overflow on the livewell to the fitting on side of the boat in the first pics.
vlcsnap-2023-01-26-12h46m18s439.png
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Do you have a hose or that hole?
vlcsnap-2023-01-26-12h53m27s063.png
Thanks for all the information, it sure seams like my boat was built wrong off the assembly line. I don't have the overflow tube and the associated cutout in the adjacent compartment for the overflow tube. I now know I have a unique scenario and will need to figure out a solution to make it functional.
thanks again for taking the time to take the pictures.
More than welcome, I learned a little also!! I don't think it would be that hard to cut the hole with hole saw and the overflow fittings are just generic form a place like Flo-rite and the hose is just black garden hose. If you don't have an overflow it is almost useless as a live well unless you watch it all the time (Overflow, under filled, no great aeration). You could put a stand pipe on the drain, leave the drain open all the time and when you turn the pump on it will fill up to the level of the stand pipe and then drain into it, if already full and you turn it on with will pump in new fresh water while draining excess thru the stand pipe. The issue there is if you have a bass that like to be really active in the live well then they can break the stand pipe off.Originally Posted by Lezm001
I guess you could convert the drain to fill also. You will have to redo the pump and valve config.
Check this out, you could use the V2/V3/v4 setup.
https://www.flow-rite.com/wp-content...log-valves.pdf
Last edited by old4runner; 01-28-2023 at 12:54 AM.
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