Ballast systems issues in 2001 V-drive

[jchance]

I have a 2001 Maristar V-drive with the front and rear ballast system. The water valves are located under the engine are controlled by hand knobs inside the starboard side rear hatch. They are connected to the valves under the engine by pushrods, similar to what you would find on a lawnmower. One of the cables has become stiff and hard to open/close.

I am looking into options to either repair or replace the system. Currently there are 6 pumps to operate the system (3 pumps to fill and 3 to empty) as well as 3 more vent/overfill hoses. All of the pumps are the replaceable cartridge type. All of this is the original Mastercraft design. As a result, I also have 3 water intakes (holes in the hull) at the stern down by the drain plug.

Is there a better way to run the system? Should I upgrade to a different system or just try to find another control cable to replace the sticking one? What did they do in the later boats? I have read the posts about a different pump system and something about different impellors, but really do not know what that system looks like. Thanks for any good suggestions!!

[swatguy]

I had/have the same system. It's a major ordeal to upgrade. You could get a good glass guy to seal up the old holes in the transom and start over with a thru hull and some reversible pumps. If that is your thing, but again its would be a pain and cost $$$.

What I did was just swap out the old pumps and replace them with Fly HighTsunami pumps. I left my center sac pumps alone. I just upgraded the rear tank pumps with Tsunamis (fill and empty) as I replaced my tanks with 750lb fly high bags. If you still are using the hard tanks, this is really not an option for you as the ports are all 3/4inch on the tanks so you will get a reduction no matter how high volume pump you switch to past 1000gph. So the 1000gph Mayfair cartridge is all you can upgrade to and ths is a simple plug and play upgrade. You can just buy a 1000gph cartridge rather than the whole housing and just plug in the new cartridge. My factory pumps were either 500gph or 750gph's originally so the 1000gph cartridge def made a difference in fill/empty times. Each cartridge should be labled with its output so just pop it out and see what you have in there and if it is anything less than 1000gph then it's an easy simple upgrade that will save you some time.


The gates are there in order to prevent the water in the tanks siphoning back out. You could remove the manual gates and install a check valve in its place and not have to worry about turning the dial. That's exactly what I did. 0 issues to date. The 3/4 check valve can be installed anywhere on the fill line that you can get to. Doesn't have to go right where the gate was. www.wakemakers.com has the 3/4inch check valves you would need under "ballast parts" that make it a nice quick plug and play addition.

The impellar posts refer to reversible pumps. These pumps do not have the "impellars" everyone is usually talking about with color and what not so there is no replacing them.

[bhanson]

I have a 2001 X30 with same setup. The housing on one of my gate valves cracked. Might replace with a Flow-Rite V1 (looks like the same valve), but like the idea of a check valve so I don't have to mess with the open/closed switch. However, wouldn't the check valve allow water to siphon into the system? Don't want the tanks to fill if just cruising around.