Piston Style Water Pump w/electric motor needs help!

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Robert

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Hello, thanks for reading my question.

A friend gave me an piston style water pump with electric motor mounted on a pressure tank he had stored in a barn. He last used it in his home and he said it worked great. I cleaned out the tank and a bunch of debris came out (ie dirt, insulation etc.) Obviously a varmit was living in the tank. No biggy, flushed it out and installed it into a 26ft shallow well. Ran 24' of 3/4 inch pvc w/ foot valve. The pump has a new float in the tank and SQ D pressure switch. Primed the pump and this is the result. Motor, belt, piston all moving fine. Don't see any leaks and foot valve is clean and holding but....

1st problem. Water just trickles out the faucet.

2nd problem No pressure on the pressure guage. Zero!

Action Taken:
Pulled the pipes off the tank and no water come out of the tank :confused: Manually filled the tank until just below the float (approximatly 1/2 way up the tank. ) Some water started coming out the bottom opening of the tank. You would think it would pour out :confused: Put it back together and water did not come out the faucet any better. Pretty much useless. Put a garden hose on the top of the tank and clear water came out the faucet proportionally.

Tried to bypass the tank and run water out the top of the pump but it did not do much either. Pump seems to be making suction but I do not know how much there should be or how to test it. Maybe 24ft is too deep for the pump.

3rd problem Possibly unrelated. Electric moter gets hot and shuts off after about 7 minutes running.

Ok. Its looks like a pretty cool pump and I would like to make it work. Im aware that there is supposed to be an air water ratio and I filled the tank half way. I do not know if the tank has a bladder. Any ideas??

Thanks for your input.

Robert
 
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PEW

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Have not seen one of those in over 45 years.

Sounds like it has been laying around for a while, would guess that the seals are dried out. Not seeing it have no way to know what kind of tank it is.

Paul
 

Speedbump

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Not only dried up gaskets and rubber, but the valves probably aren't seating too well after setting up that long. Problem is; you take it apart, need gaskets, rubber or otherwise, where do you find them?

bob...
 

Robert

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Its Fixed!

It turned out to be the valves on the bottom side of the motor were caked up with rust and crud. As soon as I pulled the cover off it was obvious water could not pass through the valves. After some cleaning and making new gaskets with gasket material and sealant she built up pressure to 40 lbs. Thanks so much for steering me in the right direction :)

Robert
 
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