Need a veteran well guy for odd pitless adapter issue

[kurt plumber]

I am a 20 year master plumber (service) not a well expert. MY OWN house has a jet pump shallow well deal with a 22 year old pitless adapter that is odd if not rare. It has a three toed (birds foot) spring loaded cam that presses the well suction line in the casing into the adapter (I believe horizontally) the pump is running long and hard to reach cut off. I did all of the standard repairs, clear jet, check check valve for opening ability, yadda yadda. I suspect that the footvalve screen is clogged. I dropped my underwater cam that I use for icefishing down the well and the footvalve looks like a thousand year old stilagtite, or, a vertical horse turd. I need to pull the damn thing and clean or replace the footvalve. the F-ing thing is winning. I threaded a 10' piece of black pipe into the pull oriface and pulled the release cable ( it only tips up about 30 degrees). I can see the cam pivot into the casing on the adapter side of the well, but it isnt sliding the nipple out of the adapter. I took a piece of unistrut to try to wedge between the casing and the drop pipe to try to pry the mother scratcher loose, to no avail. the total depth of the well is only 25 feet. If I cannot bust the sucker loose, I have a concrete tunnel in my basement that goes right up to the welded threadlet on the house side of the adapter, so if I have to, I can start over.

DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY TIPS FOR GETTING THIS DAMN THING FREE SO i CAN REPLACE THE FOOT VALVE. PLEASE, SHARE YOUR IDEAS.

K.

 

[LLigetfa]

I'm not a veteran well guy but I do have the same pitless you describe and have had my pump in and out of the hole a dozen or so times. As you pull on the release cable, it raises the bird's foot and a cam pushes against the casing to eject it from the hole. I repeatedly slap the pulling pipe with the Tee handle sharply against the casing on the side the pitless is on while pulling the release cable. If you're worried about breaking the release cable, you might want to fashion a hook from a length of rebar to get under the bird's foot. It sounds like it just isn't coming up high enough to clear.