No water. Control box or pump?

[Yuba]

I have no water. I'm not sure if it's the control box or motor. It was there when i moved in, so I'm not sure what's below ground. I have a franklin 110v 1/2 hp control box. Im not sure the age. I have lived there for about 5 years. The date on the plate says 05e19. So it makes me think it was made in 05 so it is probably like 15 years old.

When i first plug it in, it hums and draws allot of power for about 3 seconds and then shuts off. I tried to look at the capacitors tab, and it isn't buldging or yellow. It has a white scale build up it looks like. I have looked online and can't find what this means. I have tested it with my cheap multimeter on ohm. It usually doesn't say anything. A couple times i got a rising number but i haven't been able to replicate it. Maybe it's just a crap meter though.

Any ideas? I live in a pretty remote area. To make matters worse, i recently had a spinal cord injury making it difficult for me to do things. My local plumbing supply doesn't have anything in 110v.

 

[Reach4]

A couple times i got a rising number but i haven't been able to replicate it.

Put the resistance on high resistance. See the ohms. A good capacitor would jump lower when you touch, and then rise. Reverse the leads. Good capacitor will give a bigger jump, and then a rise in resistance. Start capacitor is a non-polarized electrolytic (which is made from two polarized electrolytics in series). They go bad.

Is control box number 280 104 4915 ?
Does capacitor maybe have the number 275 464 201 ? That would be a 250-300 mfd capacitor.

See https://www.supplyhouse.com/Motor-Start-Capacitors-19703000

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Yuba]

I don't have a setting for high resistance. It's junk. It's just auto. I'm not sure if this multimeter is worth anything other then reading voltage. I tried putting them both on the same pin and i didn't get a reading. But i put the leads together and i get zero. Maybe a shop somewhere can test it for me or I'm going to have to just buy a new control box and see if it works. I was hoping the state of the indicator tab would be more useful.
Yes. It's 280104 4915

 

[Reach4]

I don't have a setting for high resistance. It's junk. It's just auto. I'm not sure if this multimeter is worth anything other then reading voltage. I tried putting them both on the same pin and i didn't get a reading.

If you put the multimeter into resistance/ohms, moisten your hands, and grab the meter probe tips -- one with the left hand and one with the right-- do you get a reduction of resistance indicated? If so, your meter is up to this job.

You may have a friend with a capacitance measurement setting, or you could buy one. That is not an expensive feature these days.

https://www.esupplydepot.com/p-4408-franklin-electric-305207951-capacitor-kit-275464201.aspx is expensive exact replacement.

https://thepumpwarehouse.com/shop/franklin-qd-control-box-12-hp-115v/ is the whole box.

I don't have a control box, and I don't know what will fit. Those generic capacitors can be pretty cheap, and I think replacing them after 7 or 10 years can be a very good idea.

 

[Valveman]

Always try a new control box before working on the pump. I can tell by looking at the paper covered hole on top of the capacitor that it is most likely bad.