Pulling well pipe, need a little advice

[Brewmaestro]

27' deep sandpoint well, 1.25 galvanized, hand-driven through gravel. I believe I have one or more leaks below ground and maybe a bad point, so I've decided to pull the well and re-do. My plan is to simply disassemble pipe and couplings as I pull it, then reassemble using the same parts. I'd hate to buy new drive couplings @ $10 apiece. Should I double-dope? Any advice would be appreciated. Steve

[LLigetfa]

27 feet is not very deep. Is that to the top of the screen or the bottom of the sand point? If the ground conditions allow it, a sand point should have about 30 feet of pipe above it. This ensures that the pump cannot draw the table down to the top of the screen.

Drive couplings are designed so that the pipe ends bottom out and as such may not have as tight a seal on the threads. For that reason they need to be well doped.

[Brewmaestro]

The 27' is to the lowest point of the sandpoint. The water level is at about 21'.

Maybe it's just me, but I was not able to get the pipes to butt together in the couplings. But I was wondering if I might be able to use ordinary couplings, since it shouldn't take as much force to drive the pipe back into place... Or is that a pipe dream. Steve

[Porky]

By your description it's to far to the water to effectivly lift from 21 ft. In theory you can only lift water 30 feet at sea level. Adding friction loss ideally 18 feet is about the limit. Any more than that is iffy!