water pump won't stop

[blacklab]

I was going to put antifreeze in my 79 bigfoot today.
When I turn on the pump switch it won't draw the antifreeze, and it runs steady.
What's up?

[Randy P.]

I don't know if this is your particular issue but I had this happen to me when running the pump on a low battery. After I plugged in to shore power it primed and worked fine.

[Franswa]

sounds like you did not shut off the intake line (1/4 turn valve)....so your pump is pumping air from your empty (drained) fresh water tank...

what year/model Bigfoot?

[blacklab]

It's a 79. I unhooked the line and had it in the jug of antifreeze. It wouldn't draw from the jug.

[Franswa]

.....IF you mean that you disconnected the suction line between the tank and pump and put THAT into the jug of anti-freeze.....

you MAY have positioned the jug at a higher (too high) elevation compared to the usual water level in the tank....and the pump is not priming itself / can't pump because of that

FWIW...my 97 has a shut off valve on the suction line...not far from it on the pump side of the line there is a tee, another shut off and a short length of hose (that is meant to put into the jug of antifreeze for winterizing)....the winterizing procedure also involves shutting/opening the by-pass system on the water heater and draining that 6 gal reservoir

[Darral T.]

FWIW, I always just pour 1 Gal of RV antifreeze into my freshwater tank and it let it pull from there. That way, I have my tank and its hoses covered. I DO make sure it's drained as much as possible. I always "blow" out my lines as well. I have a regulating compressor and set it on 40psi. Water heater drained? I "back" the antifreeze from my hot water faucet back into the water heater. Floyd showed me that trick and it works well.

I ALSO agree with one other poster though. I ran into the SAME issue not too long ago thinking my pump had gone bad! The reason it will run continuously, the "pressure switch" doesnt activate because there's no pressure on the line obviously. I was running off my 12v battery which is old and tired. I plugged into shore power and away she went. That was probably a "priming" issue since the pump wasnt running max speed. I looked and I believe my battery was at apx 12.2v or so. On the converter, it's apx 13.6.....AND the "amps" are there .