242X Factory Ballast

[F.M.]

Has anyone figured out an easy way to get to the vent caps on the rear ballasts?

I'm thinking about extending the hoses from the pumps and turning the bags around so that the fittings are easy to get to. Besides having a possible issue with emptying while at cruising speed, which I don't really do anyway, is there any reason that I shouldn't?

 

[jcyamaharider]

Whats the reason? To get the bags to fill more?

 

[Julian]

Has anyone figured out an easy way to get to the vent caps on the rear ballasts?

Do be honest, I didn't think the bags had vent caps...only fill lines....I was thinking that adding vent holes that were plumbed to the side of the boat would be a major improvement without too much difficulty (not sure why they didn't do this - besides being cheap)

 

[F.M.]

Whats the reason? To get the bags to fill more?

Yes.

Do be honest, I didn't think the bags had vent caps...only fill lines....I was thinking that adding vent holes that were plumbed to the side of the boat would be a major improvement without too much difficulty (not sure why they didn't do this - besides being cheap)

Mine have the same cap as the one in the ski locker, I just can't get to it.

 

[jcyamaharider]

No real need to vent the bags as long as they have timers. It also adds something in to the equation that may not let it drain all of the way.

 

[F.M.]

My thinking was that I could use a separate pump if need be to top it off. The stupid timer isn't long enough to fill it. Even filling one at a time the port side is maybe 60% and 80% strbd. Thought about putting a quick connect fitting in place of the vent cap.

 

[jcyamaharider]

What I did to mine is jumper the pump to fill the bag all the way. Then I did a calibration to drain the bag entirely. Now if I just fill my bag port side only it fills all the way up.

 

[F.M.]

I'll try that first then.

 

[Matt Phillips]

I noticed mine didn't drain/fill all the way last summer and doing a pump calibration helped.

Since then I learned of the "fill the port bag first" suggestion and and I'll see if I can get that Port bag fuller this weekend when I take her out. I did have an issue with some air in the starboard bag last season for a while and I finally had to wiggle back there and bleed it out through the vent. That helped quite a bit...but it wasn't an easy wiggle for sure.

 

[WetWillie]

So I have never filled any of the ballast on my 212x is there a trick for first time use or should I calibrate on first use in proper rotation of which side to fill first? Have the 2 rear hard tanks and ski locker bag, know to fill up one at a time...

I’d like to try this when we go out next weekend... and sorry for the run-on question.

 

[Matt Phillips]

The pumps on the 242 run based on time for both fill and empty.

My recommendation is to fill the bags once you go out and then visually check and see how full they are. if they need to be adjusted, that process is in the Connext screen in the System Area (I may be wrong as I'm not in front of the display at the moment).

 

[jcyamaharider]

So I have never filled any of the ballast on my 212x is there a trick for first time use or should I calibrate on first use in proper rotation of which side to fill first? Have the 2 rear hard tanks and ski locker bag, know to fill up one at a time...

I’d like to try this when we go out next weekend... and sorry for the run-on question.

You are actually in a better situation then we are. 212X have 2 thru hulls to fill. One for the 2 rear hard tanks, and then another for the ski locker bag. For the life of me I don't know they didn't do a thru hull per pump.

 

[Matt Phillips]

On my 242, it's 1 thru hull feeding 3 pumps into 3 bags. Thus why lots of people fill the port bag (the farthest from the fitting) first (which I'll try this weekend).

 

[Rod5]

What I did to mine is jumper the pump to fill the bag all the way. Then I did a calibration to drain the bag entirely. Now if I just fill my bag port side only it fills all the way up.

When you do your jumper trick, do you disconnect the pump from the system harness and jump at the plug near the pump or have you spliced into the wires? Wondering about energizing the control module in when in a neutral state and cooking something.
I've thought about adding a momentary manual fill/empty switch to override or manually operate each pump individually in order to top-off fill or finish draining each bag on an as needed basis, but worried about cooking the control module when back feeding power to it. I suppose the prudent thing to do would be to install diodes to prevent that...
This year in 2018 I'm suddenly having a lot of trouble completely draining the center ski locker. After about 3 or 4 uses its still 1/3 full after a complete drain cycle. I've re-calibrated them several times but something is obviously not perfect anymore after 2 full seasons and so the timers concept is becoming a PIA and not able to adapt to something no longer in perfect order...

 

[F.M.]

Seems like Yamaha could have metered these pumps for flow or pressure and they would have worked much better.

 

[mraz72]

Just so I understand, on the 242x, you should calibrate to get most potential out of the bags? Anyone have a good writeup or screen shots of this? Is it pretty straight forward in the UI?

 

[F.M.]

Hold down the system control button below the screen for a few seconds. The screen will change to a diagnostic looking layout. Push the settings tab in the middle. And then you'll see the ballast calibration.

 

[jcyamaharider]

When you do your jumper trick, do you disconnect the pump from the system harness and jump at the plug near the pump or have you spliced into the wires? Wondering about energizing the control module in when in a neutral state and cooking something.
I've thought about adding a momentary manual fill/empty switch to override or manually operate each pump individually in order to top-off fill or finish draining each bag on an as needed basis, but worried about cooking the control module when back feeding power to it. I suppose the prudent thing to do would be to install diodes to prevent that...
This year in 2018 I'm suddenly having a lot of trouble completely draining the center ski locker. After about 3 or 4 uses its still 1/3 full after a complete drain cycle. I've re-calibrated them several times but something is obviously not perfect anymore after 2 full seasons and so the timers concept is becoming a PIA and not able to adapt to something no longer in perfect order...

To jumper the pump I completely disconnected the pump from the system. Then I hooked up my own power and ground wire to trigger the pump to fill. after it was full I plugged the motor back into the system and then did the recalibration.

If your bags are not emptying then your impeller could be fouled. It is an easy fix and the impeller costs around 20 bucks.

 

[Rod5]

Got it, I figured you were disconnecting. I’ll see about getting to the impeller.

 

[WetWillie]

You are actually in a better situation then we are. 212X have 2 thru hulls to fill. One for the 2 rear hard tanks, and then another for the ski locker bag. For the life of me I don't know they didn't do a thru hull per pump.

So I don’t know which is the better position to be in... Having the two pumps on my boat that may or may not fill more to capacity (still to be seen); or to have the throttle-by-wire and preset control settings on the 42x which sound sweet and useful in water sporting... of course complete disregard to substantial price point differences...