HELP! Water Pump Issue 1997 Fleetwood Discovery.

[didimitten]

Hi.

I have been searching for a while but can't find the right answer to my particular problem. I have a 1997 new to me Fleetwood discovery and I can't disable my water pump. When I have fresh water in the tank the pump works as normal but when I connect to city water it just pumps the tank water when I turn on the faucets. I cannot disable my pump with or without city water connected. I have the button switched to off in the main water bay. I have one valve that is for bypass. I would think that having the bypass off and the city water connected I should get city water but like I said, it only uses tank water. The bypass when turned on runs the pump continuously to fill the fresh water tank as I believe it should. What am I missing. When I was buying the RV they had to fix a ground wire apparently to get the water pump to work. Do you think they have hard wired it somehow to rig it? Or am I missing something to turn the darn thing off and use city water. I read and re-read the manual and as I said searched and searched for an answer to this but I am stumped. Any help would be so greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!!

[RLS7201]

Here is how your water pump and controller are wired. If any one of the momentary switches is stuck closed, the others won't be able to signal the controller. Un-plug one switch at a time and see if the others will signal the controller.



Richard

[didimitten]

Definitely seems like it is a controller issue and the place I got it from hard wired the ground to get it working. That is such a good point about the noise. It is loud inside the RV also. BUT hearing it is probably a good thing like you said as one I know it's working and two its a leak warning If the controller can be repaired then I may as well keep the cash in my pocket and keep it. With only a 6 gallon hot water tank, I think my money could be spent on more pressing matters hehe.

[Jim]

Usually the pumps aren't the cause of loudness, the mounting of the pump is. You can isolate the pump by putting in on top of a piece of plywood and putting rubber under it to quiet it some.

Also, what many people think of as loudness when the pump runs, with their head stuck inside the water compartment, is not that loud inside the RV and many of us use that sound to tell if the pump is coming on periodically when not called for. If it does, that tells us there's a leak somewhere. If it doesn't come on periodically there's no leak. So it's acting as a 'Tell-tale'.

[ksg5000]

You might need a new water pump - but sounds like you also need a new water pump controller.

[didimitten]

These replies have been so helpful thank you!!! They did hard wire a ground to it. They told us that our water pump wasn't turning on and they had to wire a new ground!! That seems to be what they did. Now I know that I am not missing a switch somewhere and that solves a lot of head scratching. Maybe this is a good excuse to get a nice new quiet water pump as the one it has is very loud 🙂

[dougrainer]

I assume from your post, the Water Pump ALWAYS has power regardless of the wall switches? If so, Fleetwood used 2 different types of switches. System 1 is, ALL of the switches (2 or 3) are daisy chained and they have a definite ON and OFF toggle, not spring loaded . That means if just 1 is ON then the others will not turn the pump OFF. System 2 is they use a Water Pump controller and the switches are spring loaded. ANY switch will turn the Controller on and off. Sounds like the people that attempted to fix your system did not know what they were doing and bypassed the controller type system and now you have a pump on all the time. In the controller type system, you have 12 volts positive to the pump all the time and the controller opens and closes the ground wire to the pump, Sooo, they probably found that 12 volt positive at the pump, found no ground and then wired a direct ground which will render the pump ON all the time. Doug
PS, your Water Pump controller is bad. It is probably corroded. Fleetwood installed this controller in various places. In the water bay behind the plastic panel and sometime below the refer inside the bottom cabinet or behind the 120/12 volt panel if this panel was mounted at the floorli9ne area inside.

[ksg5000]

Not positive but I think my water pump won't operate when I am connected to shore power - doesn't matter whether I have the water pump switch turned on or not. Think that's because the water pump is designed to turn on only when there is a pressure differential and that doesn't happen when your connected to shore water. If so - you may have more than a switch/power issue. Fortunately water pumps are inexpensive and easy to replace.

It's possible that your monoplex water controller isn't functioning and they hot wired the water pump. When my monoplex controller went south it essentially disabled all the water pump switches - finding the controller was a real chore in my rig - replacing it was easy.

[Golden_HVAC]

In my 97 Bounder, there are 3 places where I can turn on or off the pump. It is a momentary switch at each location, and if the pump is on, it will turn it off, or if off, it will turn it on.

Any switch will change it from off to on or on to off.

I have a switch in the kitchen, one in the bathroom and one in the sewer clean out area. Each has a light, that has long ago burned out and when the RV was new, the light would come on when the pump was 'on' position.

There is a relay feeding power to the pump located near my pump. It has a 12 volt DC inlet, and a wire going someplace, I guess to the three switches. It also has 12 volt going to the pump when the light is on and the pump should have power.

I suspect that this relay went bad, and you need a new one. But I may be wrong, (typically I am pretty good though).

You also need a new RV service facility, as the one you where at just seemed to 'hot wire' the pump, and feed it 12 volt power all the time. While this may 'work' and get you out the door, it is not a good solution. Say your tank starts to go empty, and the pump is energized. The pump would not shut off if it has drawn in water and will not pressurize to 55 PSI (like it has been doing while this problem has happened.).

For now, I would recommend pulling off the feed wire or fuse to the pump, so it will not run when dry (the fresh water tank has no water, if the pump has 12 volt power to it, the pump will be damaged.).

Good luck, hope you find a good mechanic!

Fred.

[Tinstar]

Did you shut off the other switch on the pump. Usually there are at least two switches, one in the kitchen and one in the bath. There also may be a switch in the water bay. They all have to be turned off the stop the electrical supply to the pump.