chazman
New Member
Hello All,
I just joined this forum today in search of desperate help and advice.
Our family have a small weekend get-away house which gets own water from a underground well (30'? deep). The house is in the mountain at 5600' elevation and the water is very hard/lots of mineral. The house was built in 1984 and we bought it about 3 years ago. When we were up there last weekend, we noticed that no water was coming out from any of the faucets inside or outside of the house. I found out the 500-gal fire water holding tank was completely empty (the autotomatic sprinkler system was programmed set "ON" during the week and used all the water...). I checked the well pump/motor assembly (the one above the ground - and I think there is another one underground, right?), and it was making a quite loud buzzing that I could heare just outside the well pump shack. When I touched the motor housing, it was very warm and the motor was not running. So, I immediately shut off the electric circuit break to the well pump system. I waited several hours until the motor housing was cool to touch and turned on the power again, but the same thing happened - buzzing sound and not turning over. So, I partially removed the motor/pump assembly in the middle. I could not remove the motor part because its rear end was blocked by the pipe just behind it - see the attached the photo. Also the 2nd photo for the motor/pump info. I removed 4 bolts connecting the motor housing to the actual pump part and I could see and barely touch the motor shaft with my finger. With the power/electricity completely shut OFF, I tried to turn over the motor shaft by finger, but I could not. Apparently it locked up solid (but not really sure). We had lots of snow and rain this winter so I would not think lack of water has anything to do with it. I am a totally newbie to well pump/motor and here are some of my questions:
> Is the "locking up" common on such well pump motor?
> What can cause it to locke up?
> Is it better to rebuild or replace with a new one? Not sure how old it is, but it doesn't look 24 year old.
> If you recommend replacing it, is it something a Saturday mechanic can do?I've replaced pistons/cylinders on motorcycles a few times successfully but this would be my first attempt on a well pump...
Thank you in advance and I hope someone can help me out with this problem.
I just joined this forum today in search of desperate help and advice.
Our family have a small weekend get-away house which gets own water from a underground well (30'? deep). The house is in the mountain at 5600' elevation and the water is very hard/lots of mineral. The house was built in 1984 and we bought it about 3 years ago. When we were up there last weekend, we noticed that no water was coming out from any of the faucets inside or outside of the house. I found out the 500-gal fire water holding tank was completely empty (the autotomatic sprinkler system was programmed set "ON" during the week and used all the water...). I checked the well pump/motor assembly (the one above the ground - and I think there is another one underground, right?), and it was making a quite loud buzzing that I could heare just outside the well pump shack. When I touched the motor housing, it was very warm and the motor was not running. So, I immediately shut off the electric circuit break to the well pump system. I waited several hours until the motor housing was cool to touch and turned on the power again, but the same thing happened - buzzing sound and not turning over. So, I partially removed the motor/pump assembly in the middle. I could not remove the motor part because its rear end was blocked by the pipe just behind it - see the attached the photo. Also the 2nd photo for the motor/pump info. I removed 4 bolts connecting the motor housing to the actual pump part and I could see and barely touch the motor shaft with my finger. With the power/electricity completely shut OFF, I tried to turn over the motor shaft by finger, but I could not. Apparently it locked up solid (but not really sure). We had lots of snow and rain this winter so I would not think lack of water has anything to do with it. I am a totally newbie to well pump/motor and here are some of my questions:
> Is the "locking up" common on such well pump motor?
> What can cause it to locke up?
> Is it better to rebuild or replace with a new one? Not sure how old it is, but it doesn't look 24 year old.
> If you recommend replacing it, is it something a Saturday mechanic can do?I've replaced pistons/cylinders on motorcycles a few times successfully but this would be my first attempt on a well pump...
Thank you in advance and I hope someone can help me out with this problem.
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