Gonna hop on your thread Guppy....although it didn't turn out as victorious as yours, misery loves company right?...
Headed out for bait Saturday, put the plug in the live-well and turned the live-well valve on....after finding the bait, started snagging. Got the first one to the boat ...lifted the cover, no water??
Hit the live-well auto-fill, no water?
Open the transom-access hatch, transom cavity FULL of water!!
Hit the manual-bilge, luckily it turns on and after some time, I get the water out.
Turn the hose on to wash off the pogy blood, no water?
Reach down into the transom cavity to check the seacock valve (which would explain why no water from either location), looks weird...try to turn it, feels like it's bending more than turning. Twisting into a pretzel trying to reach seacock while on the water....no fun,,
....pizzzed off, seacock valve isn't turning at all....Bruce Banner turns into the Hulk and breaks the seacock handle!
So I got no raw water, and no auto-bilge float switch.
Get home after a fish-less morning, and the fun begins.
The nut on the handle is junk. I can't get a ratchet on it...try using vice-grips, strip her silly. Meanwhile, I break the ground wire attached to the seacock valve...because of the broken handle, I don't have much to grip because the valve now turns all the way around so I don't have much counter balance against the nut to get it off. Douse the nut with WD40 and start messing with the float switch instead. Take it apart looks ok? not stuck...but now with the ground wire broken, I can't test it. Wrestle with the nut until the wife comes out for the 5th time to tell me we have an obligation to attend to...
....have to walk away in defeat.
Sunday, spend more time trying to get the nut off before Sunday's activities, or rather obligations begin, no luck.
After getting home from the Canal this morning and waiting the rain out, I'm at it again....finally get the nut off....hooray right?
No....I go to Lowe's and Home Depot, they don't sell handles...only complete valve assemblies with handles that don't look marine-worthy. I then go to West$$Marine....they too, have no handles....have to buy the whole valve to get the handle>> $60 for a $W#$%ng handle!!@!
Finally get that taken care of while it's raining on me...and try to test it....yeah ok, trying to hold the hose to the intake....not happening. Can't tell if it's working, will need to hit the water tomorrow to test.
And then figure out why the float isn't working...
So for all youze guys who are jealous of a boat guy.....DON'T!!! It ain't always roses,,,, matter of fact...it's hardly EVER roses...
Rant over ~