Help!! Presure goes down when pump comes on

[elipoppin]

I am having a problem with my well....I noticed a week ago that the pump was running when no usage was going on...I didn't think much of it thinking maybe something in the house was on...Later that night I checked and it was still running with no load on the system....I adjusted the preasure down and it now seems to cycle on and off like it should with the gauge on the presure tank piping reading 62 when the pump goes off...

I checked the whole house filter that is inline and it was super dirty...So I have changed that...The filter has a ball valve on each side and there is a diversion pipe with a valve so the filter can be bypassed....There are gauges on each side of the filter that read 40 psi...

Here is where I get confused....Presure on the hose fitting near the pumphouse is good up until the pump kicks in....Then the presure takes a major drop....Also when the gauge after the preasure tank is at 62 the gauges by the filter still read 40...Are these normal reading? I don't seem to see any kind of check valve between the pump and presure tank?? Is there one built into the tank or?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!!

 

[elipoppin]

Any Suggestions?

My biggest question is why when the pump kicks in would the flow take an instant drastic drop? Makes me think there is some kinda back flow issue??

Today I will check the presure tank for air....

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Rancher]

Also when the gauge after the preasure tank is at 62 the gauges by the filter still read 40...Are these normal reading?

Do the gauges at the filter change? If so I would suspect the pressure tank gauge is bad.

Rancher

 

[elipoppin]

I don't think the gauges before and after the filter change much...they seem to stay around 40....I don't see how the gauge after the presure tank can get to 60 without the gauges by the filter going up near the same presure...I will go out to the pumphouse and get more details.

Thanks....

 

[Rancher]

Without any water running, all 3 gauges should be reading the same.

Rancher

 

[elipoppin]

Added Diagram

I am adding a diagram I drew of how things are plumbed together....It appears everything is directly coupled together...Very confused on why the gauges do not read the same....The valve stem, last gauge, and presure switch are all on 1/2" pipe with the T going to them being a reduction from 1"...Clogged Up?

 

[elipoppin]

Update

Upon further tampering I have come up with this:

The last gauge in line must be broken....when system is completely drained it still reads 20 psi...This answers that discrepency.

When I turn off the first valve closest to the pump the presure builds quickly to 49psi but will not go further than that...Is this a sign of a bad pump?

I came across a box between the switch and the pump...When I removed the cover not realizing there were contacts on it I got a nice little flash...When I went to put it back together, still Hot, when turning the cover screw i noticed some little blue sparks around the screw as I turned it....AC Floating around somewhere? I am headed to get my meter to see if both legs are going to the pump....There are 3 wires to the pump from the little box...Is one a neutral? I also noticed a little white crust where they come out of a bushing and head to the pump. making me think there is a little voltage where it shouldn't be.

The air in my presure tank seems too low for where the pump kicks on at (38 psi) so I will raise it to 36 psi.

 

[elipoppin]

more info...

Sorry for all the text but I am trying to explain things in detail....

I meter 6.5 amps on two of the pump wires (black and yellow) and under 1 on the 3rd(red)...red for a neutral or ground seems strange....Plumbers

When I did some metering on the presure switch I get 110 on the supply wires but I also get 8 volts on the other sides of the switch...

I bought a new presure switch and presure gauge to put in tomorrow....I am thinking this will not change much for me.....

 

[Bob NH]

When I did some metering on the presure switch I get 110 on the supply wires but I also get 8 volts on the other sides of the switch...

Each "hot" wire will be 110 or 120 to ground. Start by checking the voltage between the two hot wires; first on the input side of the pressure switch and then on the output side of the switch when the pump is running. Almost all submersible pumps have 240 Volt motors.

The 8 Volts is probably a result of a small induced voltage that is measured by modern high-resistance digital meters.

 

[elipoppin]

When the pump was off the two hot legs at the presure switch each read 110 to ground and 220 together....The two that go to the capacitor pump box on the "device" side of the presure switch have 8 volts on them....When the pump is running the voltage reads 106 volts from all points to ground.....

Still a question I am yet to know an answer to is:
If the pump used to have no problem getting up to the cut-out psi point and now it will not create over 49 psi even with the first valve in the system closed....Is this something to do with prime?? We did loose power for a few hours before any of this started and we had friends over and fixtures got used until no more water would come out of them

Thanks!!