This may be a stupid question, but I have 3 livewells in the back of my boat, and down in the back of the hull, is 2 aerators, with the hoses all ran (maybe wrong??) when I hit the aerator switch, auto makes one pump come on, but manual does nothing with either. on the back of the boat, there 2 little holes beside the main draincock. Both holes are plugged right now. Do I have to take those plugs out in order for the livewells to fill up?? Because there is no switch to pump water in from the lake to the livewell, even though I see a big hose that looks like it runs from a port on the bottomside of the hole, up to the main livewell. I'm just very confused with all of this...Thanks for any advice anyone has!!!!

what kind and year of boat? How long have you owned the boat? Has it ever worked?

The boat is a 1981 Eldocraft bass boat, and I just bought the boat. The motor was overhauled, so I'm having a few problems with it, but the livewells havent worked since I bought it.

bassman22, go to this site live wells , it may give you some ideal how it should look..
click the link-Load the Livewell Builders Guide--then at the bottom, Flow-Rite Systems Guide.
The drain has the flow-rite valve in it, which you don't have , but you can tell where the hoses should run..

Thanks a whole lot guys...but the main problem I'm having is working the thing. There's no switch to fill it up, or drain em. When I filled the livewells up in the driveway, they drained out of the main draincock in the boat. How do I fill the livewells? And how do I pump water out?

Do the 2 small drain holes on the back of the hull next to the main drain hole have something to do with the livewells?

The only switch I have on the dash says auto, or manual -- how can this work everything? It may sound stupid but I'm clueless...

Not knowing your boat, I will try to give you some idea of how it is suppose to work.
your live well should have two holes and an inlet water supply. the bottom hole should be plugged to hold water in the live well. the top hole is the overflow. when water is pumped into the inlet water supply, the live well will fill and overflow out. the switch in auto should fill, pause, fill the live well. In manual the pump will continue to fill the live well until you turn it off or switch to auto. You drain the live well by removing the plug in the bottom of the live well.
Hope this helps.

Thanks a lot yard dog... Well, when I had the boat out in the water, I hit the auto and manual switch and nothing happened. I could hear the pump runnin back there (or aerator pump?) but no water filled so, I guess I have a problem, haha

Also, I only hear one pump come on, and I'm guessing they should both come on..

you probable have a bilge pump and a livewell pump and possible areators within the livewells.

Well, I'm pretty sure the 2 in the back are aerators, bc there was no bilge pump, and I just installed one of those myself. What exactly are the 2 small drain holes that are next to the big main drain hole? And what'll happen if i take the plugs out? haha

one of the small holes is for the inlet to live well, and the other is the drain (bottom of tank). When you put a pump between the inlet and the tank ,it will not let water drain back out that hose,, Then you put a plug, in the bottom of the tank for the other hose that runs from bottom of tank out the back. Pull the drain plug and out comes the water. It should have a larger hose near the top of live well going over to some where ,that is above the water line. That is the overflow to control the water level in the tank..aerators just recycle water that is already in the tank..The plugs are probably there because the hoses were not hooked up and that how the other owner keep the water out ..The BIG drain is just to let out any water that came over the back or somehow got in the bilge, that didn't get pumped out by the bilge pump..
longest post I ever made.. hope it helps..
(I need a beer)

Thanks a lot kingdad...I'm figuring this thing out more and more...Those 2 holes I was talkin about though are in the back of the hull, right next to the main drain hull that lets the water out of the hull...Any ideas on those 2, bc they stay plugged up..

Do I have to take those 2 little plugs out in the back of the hull to get water to come through the pumps...cuz those 2 pumps appear to be mounted to the back of the hull right where those 2 drain holes are...?? could they suck water from there??