Desperately needing help with well pump and no pressure

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Griz7674

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We have a 25 foot shallow well that is roughly 4 feet wide. We have never run out of water and the well is full as I type this. On Friday, the well lost all pressure. It does this several times a month and I typically walk into our pressure tank room and flip the breaker and the pump starts back up. Occasionally, I will have to tap on the pressure switch to get it going. When it stopped this past Friday, nothing worked. So, here is what I've done thus far:

1) I replaced the pressure switch. I have white going into 1 and 3 and black into 2 and 4 slots.
2) I put a pressure gauge on my pressure tank and it's reading around 35 psi and my settings are 40/60.
3) My pump is a 3 wire 115 volt 1 horsepower submersible pump with control box and the pump sits inside a 5 gallon bucket. It is 3 years old.
4) I banged on the control box to no avail.
5) I went to Menards and they gave me a new control box that is for a 3/4 hp 230 volt well pump and stated that it should still work just fine to get the pump going. I cut the wires from the bottom of the old control box and wired them into the new control box. Nothing.
6) I do not know how to use a multi-meter correctly. However, I do have a pen that beeps when it detects current. I have current at all of the spots that I would assume I should have current. I was able to test the current just before the wire enters into the well and the black wire was the only wire showing current.

So, that's where I'm at. I'm assuming that my pump has gone bad and I will need to replace it. But, wanted to check with this board before climbing down the well and swapping it out. Thoughts?
 
I am pretty sure a 1/2HP is the biggest sub you can get that will run on 115 volts. So it is either a 1/2HP or it is 230 volt.

Since you only have power on one wire going down the well you must have an open circuit in the motor.

If the pump is sitting in a 5 gallon bucket, it may not be getting enough water, which will burn it up. Or it could have just cycled on/off enough to burn up the motor as happens to most pumps.

Either way I think you are going to need a new pump.
 
If it's a 1/2hp and you get power on only one wire, that could mean it's 115 volts. If it's a 1hp like you think that would indicate no power getting to the dead line and there is no 230 volts to make anything happen. Could just be a breaker.

It sounds like your pump is cycling a lot. This burns points in the pressure switch, gets wires and components hot and burns up motors.
 

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