No water from well

I've been in this house for 14 years. I've used an old well pump attached to a spigot to bring up water for the back yard. About a month ago the water was strong and then, suddenly, there was nothing. Ocasionally in the past if I didn't use the pump for a few weeks this would happen and I'd prime it and it would come right back up. This last time it didn't work. I wasn't certain whether the water table had dropped or the pump was kaput. Where the pvc was connected to the old pump there was a slow water leak and the connection as well as the old pump was extremely rusty. Since this meant that I had to reattach the pvc pipe, I decided to get a new pump at the same time. The new shallow well jet pump is 1/2 hp just like the old one....it is supposed to bring up to 8 gals. per minute. I redid a lot of the pvc and, then, after all the effort, I had the same problem.

When I prime the pump it now needs only about a gallon after not priming it since the previous night. When I turn on the pump only about a half of this comes out the spigot. I've kept repeating the process many times....and no change. And this is the same way as with the old pump.

I live in a very sandy area in Florida. Is there a possibility that the water table has dropped and I just need to wait for some heavy rain....or has something else occurred? 1 1/4" pvc is connected to the pump and goes directly into the ground just outside the laundry room where the pump is located. I haven't a clue how deep the well is.

When priming the pump, leave the prime plug loose to let air out at the pump brings it up the pipe.

bob...

I've done this several times now and the only difference is that after I shut the pump off there's a sound like a long, loud, ugly belch.

Sounds like a vacuum being released in the piping. You didn't add a bunch of fittings in this new install did you?

The fewer fittings the better.

bob...