No water, many Well

[IDA HENSLEY]

I recently moved onto a ranch with a well. There were a few problems before but they were minor, file contact points in pressure switch or livestock broke a line somewhere.
Over two weeks ago, I woke to no water. I turned off water heater and went to pumphouse. I found a leak in the line going to pressure switch and pressure tank. Plus, had no pressure at guage. Shut off electric to well.Fixed water line and pressure tank drained dry while I fought to fix the water leak.
After many hours of research and more hours of plumbing and electrical repairs, I am at a loss.
I have a well that was dug in the mid 70s. It is 124 feet to bottom of tank. I replaced the qd control box. It is a 1hp, 230 Volts. Also replaced pressure tank already pressurized with 38 psi. of air. Replaced pressure switch 40/60 and new guage. Also new double 20 breaker.
Did continuity and resistance check on lines at control box. Those numbers were all within normal operating for my system.
Have not found any more water leaks . There were some troubles with electrical lines but I fixed those. Have power all the way from power pole to well.
Turned on breaker for well. I could hear motor running. Called to person at pressure tank. No water coming in and no pressure building. Suddenly the capacitor in the control box blew and started smoking. ( Capacitor was blown when I first noticed no water)..
Now what?
Major leak close to well?
Pump jammed by sediment? It been very hot & dry for a couple of years
Bad check valve? - don't even know where to look for one.
I am a retired single granny with animals that need water. Please help

 

[Valveman]

Sorry for your problem. You really need a clip around AC amp meter to see what is going on. When the pump is running, if it is pulling about 9 amps, it is pumping a lot of water and you have a big hole in the pipe down the well. If the amps are lower than 9, the pump is clogged or worn, or the water level could be low.

Cow troughs with floats are notorious for cycling a pump to death, Burned pressure switch points are a sign the pump is cycling on/off too much. Blown starting capacitors are from cycling on/off too much. But frying a new capacitor maybe because the pump never quite got started and the relay didn't kick out the start capacitor. You may have just cycled that pump one too many times.

Check for a short to ground down hole with your most sensitive ohm setting. Any short down the well is not good. I am guessing you are going to need a new pump/motor. Adding a Cycle Stop Valve will stop the cycling and make it last many times longer than normal. Also using non-modulating float valves greatly helps when the troughs are filling.

 

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[IDA HENSLEY]

Sorry for your problem. You really need a clip around AC amp meter to see what is going on. When the pump is running, if it is pulling about 9 amps, it is pumping a lot of water and you have a big hole in the pipe down the well. If the amps are lower than 9, the pump is clogged or worn, or the water level could be low.

Cow troughs with floats are notorious for cycling a pump to death, Burned pressure switch points are a sign the pump is cycling on/off too much. Blown starting capacitors are from cycling on/off too much. But frying a new capacitor maybe because the pump never quite got started and the relay didn't kick out the start capacitor. You may have just cycled that pump one too many times.

Check for a short to ground down hole with your most sensitive ohm setting. Any short down the well is not good. I am guessing you are going to need a new pump/motor. Adding a Cycle Stop Valve will stop the cycling and make it last many times longer than normal. Also using non-modulating float valves greatly helps when the troughs are filling.

Sorry for your problem. You really need a clip around AC amp meter to see what is going on. When the pump is running, if it is pulling about 9 amps, it is pumping a lot of water and you have a big hole in the pipe down the well. If the amps are lower than 9, the pump is clogged or worn, or the water level could be low.

Cow troughs with floats are notorious for cycling a pump to death, Burned pressure switch points are a sign the pump is cycling on/off too much. Blown starting capacitors are from cycling on/off too much. But frying a new capacitor maybe because the pump never quite got started and the relay didn't kick out the start capacitor. You may have just cycled that pump one too many times.

Check for a short to ground down hole with your most sensitive ohm setting. Any short down the well is not good. I am guessing you are going to need a new pump/motor. Adding a Cycle Stop Valve will stop the cycling and make it last many times longer than normal. Also using non-modulating float valves greatly helps when the troughs are filling.

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, I do not own the place. My brother owns it and I just manage it for him. I did, however, figure out the problem.
Originally, the livestock hit a water line. With the leaky pipe , the motor kept running. The occupants here before me had put the well lines on two separate.breakers. one breaker tripped but not the other in the sub panel. After a while, the double breaker in the main box tripped.
With all new parts, except for pump, it should have worked. The problem was the pre wired replacement control box made by Zoeller. You only need to add your two lines from the pressure switch. The red, yellow, and black lines from the well are pre set. What I didn't immediately realize was that the pump was set for the red and yellow wires to be the start/run wires. The way Zoeller has wired the boxes, black and yellow were the start/run wires. They switched functions of red & black wires. The pump would never start pumping.

 

[IDA HENSLEY]

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, I do not own the place. My brother owns it and I just manage it for him. I did, however, figure out the problem.
Originally, the livestock hit a water line. With the leaky pipe , the motor kept running. The occupants here before me had put the well lines on two separate.breakers. one breaker tripped but not the other in the sub panel. After a while, the double breaker in the main box tripped.
With all new parts, except for pump, it should have worked. The problem was the pre wired replacement control box made by Zoeller. You only need to add your two lines from the pressure switch. The red, yellow, and black lines from the well are pre set. What I didn't immediately realize was that the pump was set for the red and yellow wires to be the start/run wires. The way Zoeller has wired the boxes, black and yellow were the start/run wires. They switched functions of red & black wires. The pump would never start pumping.