53 Year Old Point Well, Pump Replacement Questions

[mjkoester]

Hi,
I have a 53 yr old point well in our basement. I'm sure the pump isn't that old but it is very old (maybe 30 years or more) and is starting to get extremely loud and taking longer and longer to get up to pressure. It is a Sta-Rite CLC-2 Pump with a Franklin C1921XB 1/2 horse motor. From what I can tell the point is about 45' to 50' down base on figures written on the basement wall next to that area. Not sure what the water level is but we have very good tasting cold water and can run a
garden hose wide open for hours and still have pressure for a shower or to run the clothes washer. It is a 2" casing with a deep well packer system and when I talked to a well pump installer they said I will probably not get the old 1 1/4" pipe out. He recommends trying to rebuild the pump and motor without disturbing the pipes but I'm not sure if we will find parts.

Has anyone had experience with old wells like this? If I need to pull the old 1 ¼†pipe out will a new pipe system seal ok and not get the new leather ejector damaged when being installing into the old 2†pipe with all the years of corrosion and
possible rust on the inside of the 2†pipe? I will try to add a picture but looking at the existing packer cup (sorry if not using the right terms) the old bolts are almost rusted through. They are so old they still are square nuts and bolt heads on it
I would look at putting a new cased well outside but with two kids in college right now I was hoping to make this one last 5 or 6 years longer. Also any of our neighbors with much deeper drilled wells tell us that we have much better water then
they do. We are in south eastern Wisconsin.
Thanks,
Mike

Sorry if the pic is sideways.

 

[Texas Wellman]

That is kind of a tough one. That is definitely a Sta-Rite casing adapter, but it is not the std. kind. What you might be able to do is remove the pump and tie into the existing piping at the casing adapter without disturbing the pipes. Since you're in the basement I don't see how you could get machinery in there to really pull if need be. I also assume the drop pipe is in ~5' lenghts. I think the advice given is probably good advice.

I believe you can still buy that particular well head for off-set applications. You might be able to get a regular sta-rite pump to bolt right up. Look for an MSE-6 Sta-Rite pump to replace that one with.

Not much you can do about the motor getting louder, but the fact that it is taking longer to pump up might indicate a plugged screen.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[mjkoester]

Thanks for your response! The smaller of the two pipes seems to have a slight off set bend to it. They are threaded into the pump head and it looks like maybe compression sealed into the casing adapter. Based on pencil markings it might be 3 1/2' sections. We bought this house from my Grand Parents and my dad said they pulled an old point out and drove a new point down the same hole. I know the age of the well because my dad said they used a sledge hammer to drive the new point down the day my older
sister was born.

I'm hoping its not a plunged screen and hoping its a worn impeller because it will pump up to about 40 psi fairly quick but than takes a long time to pump the last 5 or 10 psi. Thanks again, Mike

 

[LLigetfa]

It's easy enough to test the screen, just pump the well with no head pressure and measure the GPM. If the well can produce the desired GPM with no pressure, it's a pump problem or an ejector problem. If it's an ejector problem, that will be the tougher of two jobs.

It sounds like they put a sand point on the bottom of the ejector and pounded it down which means it could break when trying to pull it.

 

[Texas Wellman]

The way those casing adapters work is the big pipe goes all the way down. The little pipe does in fact compression seal.

 

[mjkoester]

Thanks Wellman, That now makes sense to me on how the casing adapter set-up works with the two pipes.
I hope the threads on the 1 1/4" main pipe are better then the threads on the 3/4" pipes feeding about 1/2 the house. Five years ago we added on a bathroom and the 3/4" pipe threads kept twisting off each time I tried to tie into an existing pipe.

If I end up having to try to pull the 1 1/4" ejector pipe out do you think a new ejector system will get damaged feeding it down this old of a well pipe?

 

[Texas Wellman]

No way to know. I pull old galvanized wells all the time. The majority of well co's won't work on them, but I will fix them if their fixable. Of course, I have the equipment to do so and not some hand-tote toys like other "well co's" carry. When you've got 6 tons of pulling power, if it won't come out, it ain't coming out. Sometimes you just have to abandon and re-drill.

A good set of high-lift jacks and some home-made tools would come in handy. If you can get the old one out, I think you could get the new one in.

There should be a plate that goes on top of that adapter that will allow you to directly set a mse sta-rite. check into it.

 

[mjkoester]

Thanks for your advise! I live about a 1/2 hour from Sta-Rite in Delavan hopefully I can call them for any part numbers.

 

[mjkoester]

What type and size of pressure tank should I install when I figure out what to do with the pump? We have a 3 bedroom 1 1/2 bath house with usually 3 to 4 people in the house. Not sure if the tank with a bladder is the proper one?

Thanks, again

 

[LLigetfa]

A bladder tank is the way to go. Generally, a tank is sized so as to prevent the pump short cycling so it would depend on both the GPM the pump produces and the GPM you draw. If a pump runs for less than a minute, the tank is too small. I would go with a pside-kick.
http://www.cyclestopvalves.com/pdf/psidekick-brochure.pdf

 

[Texas Wellman]

What kind of tank do you have now?

 

[mjkoester]

The current tank is a galvanized "Monitor" brand. It is 16" in Diameter and about 50" tall. I don't believe it has any kind of bladder and is about 3/4's full of water.
Thanks,