Please tell me what I am doing wrong!!!

I have just purchased a house that is on city water but has a well on the property. I installed a used Goulds VJ07 3/4 horse pump with new Sta-rite foot valve kit(I used jet 4SD and venturi J32P-24). The well is bored to 45 feet and has 26 feet of water in the well. I ran the foot valve to 40 foot deep. I installed new pipe, New pressure switch, new pressure tank( set to air pressure of 28 psi). I ran the water to a yard no frost hydrant 6 feet from the well casing. The pump is set up on 220 volt. I powered up the well and checked the pressure gauge. It topped out at 30 psi. The pressure switch is a 30-50 pressure switch. I tried to drop the switch to cut out at 30 psi which moved the cut in at 12 psi. The pump continully lost prime when the pump cut in and sucked air in from the hydrant and the pump lost prime. I ordered a complete rebuild kit for the pump and descaled the housings. I installed the parts today and hoped for the best. After the full rebuild I am only building 30 psi still and the losing prime problem is still there. The only thing left that is old is the pressure regulator and electrical motor. I have pulled all my hair out and still have not fixed my problem. Can someone help?

The foot valve is leaking or you have a leak in the pipe of a fitting between the foot valve and pump. Fix it and see if it will hold prime, if so see how it works. If not you still have a leak.

What kind of jet? Single pipe or two pipe? What size casing? Did someone tell you that nozzle/venturi combination would work with that pump and water level?

How many gallons of water per minute do you expect to get from this hookup?

Is this a DIY well or was it drilled by a pro?

response to questions

As for the foot valve and pipes there is no leak anywhere in those. I seperated the pump casings to get a parts list to order. The pump casings were separted for one week and the foot valve held all the water in the pipes and case. The level did not drop at all with the exception of evaporation. So I have ruled out any leaks in the pipe or foot valve. This is a two pipe foot valve and I chose the jet and venturi from a chart and verified it with calling a company that bores wells. The well was professionally bored about 8 years ago and concrete cased. The only thing I have not replaced on the whole system is the pressure regulator and the motor. I downloaded the Service manual for my pump and will be throwing the whole testing phase at it today. It appears that for some reason the pump is creating a vaccum and sucking air back thru the spigot. you can hear it sucking air as it reaches the point of the pump coming on. If you put your finger over the spigot just before the pump turns on it sucks your finger.As for the GPM's I expect from this well , all I am planning to do is water my chickens and water my garden. This will not be my primary source of water as I am on County water supply. I just want it to work at about 5 gpm's.

Speedbump: Can you give me your suggestion on nozzle and venturi? This is a Goulds VJ07 with a 3/4 horse motor. The well is a bored well to a depth of 45 feet. The foot valve is set to 40 feet. There is 26 feet of water in the well. I used a 4SD nozzle and a J32P-24 Venturi . The foot valve is a STA-Rite 4" Double pipe

Ok, just so we get on the same page. The Foot valve is under the two pipe jet. The foot valve simply holds the water in the pipes. The jet is what houses the nozzle and venturi. I used to have Sta-Rite charts on all their nozzles and venturi's. They made way too many. The easy way to do this is to get a 1/4" nozzle and a #11 venturi which would be 11/32'nds.

I think what your telling me is that the water level is 19 feet. If it were me, I would bolt a shallow well jet on the front of the pump (if it's a convertable) and forget the two pipe jet. They are the worst jet on the market for producing appreciable amounts of water. A shallow well jet will blow it away.

csims723 said:

The only thing I have not replaced on the whole system is the pressure regulator and the motor. I downloaded the Service manual for my pump and will be throwing the whole testing phase at it today. It appears that for some reason the pump is creating a vaccum and sucking air back thru the spigot. you can hear it sucking air as it reaches the point of the pump coming on. If you put your finger over the spigot just before the pump turns on it sucks your finger.As for the GPM's I expect from this well , all I am planning to do is water my chickens and water my garden. This will not be my primary source of water as I am on County water supply. I just want it to work at about 5 gpm's.

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It is starting to sound as if you have a suction leak as you draw the water in the well down. Are you sure everything is plumbed right; like the J-body.

Have you looked in your yellow pages under Pumps and called a Gould's distributor and asked about the use of a Sta-Rite j-body etc.? And what size injector?

It sounds as if the only water being moved is the prime water and you have something backwards.

I would call the Gould's dist. and ask why this backward suction when the pump comes.

You haven't mentioned the recovery rate of the well (IIRC), or the diameter. So ask them how many gpm you can expect out of this pump compared to a shallow well pump sucking from 19-20+ feet deep.

Is the pump pulling 3/4 hp worth of electricity (3 to 6 amps at 220v)?