Submersible pump insanity

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butch

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Any pointers here much appreciated...

Had a leak in my black plastic pipe line, about 80 feet below casing head cap. Pulled the line up far enough to fix the leak...did not pull the pump as it was pumping fine.Did leave it hanging above water column almost two days. Leak fixed, I sank the line, powered up via control box. Nothing. Wired pump straight to the power lines, now if I listen at the open well head I can here that the submersible pump is getting power but it’s not pumping water. Hums faintly (well is 260 ft) for almost a minute then stops. If I cut power for a short while then power up again, same thing, hums a short while then stops. Submersibles do not need to be primed, correct? Any clues for what next? (short of pulling it again...this time all of it )

If I somehow shorted it out the motor or some other fool misdeed, would I still be able to hear it when power is getting to it? Or is there some other possible trouble shoot available here? ( Thanks in advance for leads here.)
 
Great. Thank you for your very helpful reply.

The leak is fixed but now the pump won't pump.

It was pumping fine while I had the well head cap disconnected from the supply line to the reservoir and sitting ajar on the casing, before I pulled the line up far enough to fix the leak at 80 ft down.

I did not pull the pump all the way out to test, is only 2 or 3 years old. Plus, via visual inspection of the line I found the leak, cut that section out and coupled it back together with a replacement section and brass couplers at each end. Cranked down with two bands at every connection plus safety retrieval line rigged as a back up.

Thought I was good to go. Went back in the hole. However now after rewiring the control box and putting power to it: Nothing.

Next step was to bypass the whole control box, pressure switch and reservoir altogether and test pump by wiring the power lines and ground directly to my pump wiring where it comes out of the well head/casing.

At this point is when I could hear the pump cutting on by flipping power switch and listening at the open casing. Pump coming on and cutting off. Letting it rest. Repeating the cycle. I know it's getting 250 volts because I put a voltage hand meter to it.

So right now I am headed out to start pulling the whole pipe line and pump...I'm thinking I must have done something stupid when I re-wired the control box and maybe burned out the pump motor. (I did not leave the power on more than a 15/30 seconds at the control box but I assume that that would be enough to burn out the motor, if I had it wired wrong. I know the lines to the box were right. Is possible that I misplaced one of the power lines with the ground line going out...but I really don't think that I did.)

So, in any event, I am resigned to pulling the pump all the way out and taking it somewhere to test it and if necessary just buy a new one. However I asked about other possible reason's why the pump might be powering on and off. Definitely sounds like it's the overload switch now cutting it off with 250 volts going to it, straight wired.

I'm heading down down to get rigged up for this big job pulling the pump...if you should see this and can make any sense of it and have anything else that I might try before I pull this thing again, please reply. I will check this thread again real quick before I start pulling.

Side note: As to how I could be so stupid as to wire the power lines wrong coming out of the power box...to that I can only say that it stems from when I replaced my old worn out pump two/three years ago. A friend who was helping me mis-measured the three brand new power lines down the pipe. I had to couple on extender wires of a different color because nobody around here had the ones I needed and I had to get it done. I had the three wire replacement extenders coded sufficient to straight wire the pump last evening after the control box effort failed. Problem would have come if I mis-wired one of the power outlines and the ground. And that idiocy is in part a result of being in a hurry at the wife's behest to get the doggone water going again or else soon be busted to buck private and relegated to the goat barn. This is not to shift accountability here...it's on me and I'm paying for it with another pull of the 270 foot line and submersible.

Lord have mercy...what a steep learning curve.

Thanks again for ANY input here again: i.e.: if there is anything I can try before pulling that string again, please holler back asap and be assured of my undying gratitude.
 
A three wire pump will not work without the control box. If the pump worked when just pumping over the casing and won't pump when hooked to the lines, you probably have a motor problem. When you have a leak in the well the water gets circulated over and over until it gets hot. Then the thrust bearing in the motor drops. With the thrust bearing low it will pump with no pressure. But as soon as you hook up the pipes and start pushing against pressure, the thrust bearing lets the impeller stack drop and the amps go up and trip the overload. Could also have the wires to the control box reversed.
 

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