Shallow Well pump no prime

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EricM42

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Greetings all. I am a licensed plumber, however, in my area we have 0-few well water pump systems and no plumbing companies around here even work on them likely due to that fact. So I took the job as I do know some about them though certainly no expert. What I have is a Wayne 1/2 hp single line jet pump mounted on a horizontal 30 gal non bladder style tank(air inlet valve type) installed in the basement of the house and the customer lost water pressure yesterday while the pump runs continuously. Pump was shutdown to keep it from being damaged. The prime is lost not just at the pump but all the way into the well. It is 40' deep and is buried with the pipe entering the basement at around 3' below grade. No well casing access etc above ground. The few wells or cisterns I have worked on have all had some sort of above ground access i.e. lid etc. In this case considering the age of this setup(installed in 1983) the first thing I suspected was a stuck open or clogged screen in the foot valve. However, since it is buried I honestly am not ccomfortable digging until I am certain what I am actually dealing with here. The nice lady who owns the property is 90 years old and her husband, who is long dead, put the system in with his brother in 1983 after they discoverred water on the property according to her. She was telling me it isn't a well as such but she could not think of the term she wanted to use to call it. Is it possible a system like this doesn't even have a foot valve? Frankly I don't know how that would work, but as I say common or not, I personally have not worked on any well or cistern without some sort of access above ground, usually at the top of the well casing. This system has been worked on numerous times as the pressure gauge was removed from the piping and I have no idea what it is running at. Also makes me wonder if a check valve on the suction side may also have been removed at some pont increasing chances of loss of pump prime since. With the age of the tank and pump I also suspect it is time for both to be replaced with something more modern including a good bladder style pressure tank. Out of a dozen or so licensed plumbers in the area I am the only one of the bunch who even returned her service call. I would appreciate any opinions or advice as to most likely issue relative to what I have described. Thank you.
 
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Valveman

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If it is a cased well with a suction pipe inside the casing, the footvalve at the bottom is not working. If it is a drive point well there should be a check valve somewhere before the pipe turns down in the ground, and that check valve is not holding. Either way it is a digging job.
 
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