Pump Hum

Hayward Model # sp1515-z-1-esc

Started out the year with a hum. Was able to spin the shaft and get her running. Ran it dry last week :eek: Hope/think it has an auto-shut off for overheating. Now, we only have the hum again. Shaft spins easily. Took off back cover yesterday (dry end) and saw nothing corroded or burned. Spins easily from that side too. No capacitor on this one as far as I can tell.

Can not find a diagram of the inside of the dry end of this pump.

Any advice?

It could be the contacts in the centrifugal switch. With the motor disconnected from power, try cleaning them with some very fine metal sand paper.

Thanks for your reply!

I just got finished checking that out. They didn't appear corroded, but I did a little sanding just to be safe.

Here is what I noticed. The centrifugal switch does not close when the switch is turned on. I tried manually closing it to see if that would start the pump, and I got nothing there either. Granted, I was a bit nervous while manually closing it (with screwdriver) so I may have not made good contact. I'm ignorant as to how these switches work, btw.

Next, I went ahead and looked at the wet end of the pump. Impeller was clean and looks great. I wrapped a rope around the impeller casing, flipped my power switch, gave a yank and she fired up.

Reassembled and wrapped my rope around the shaft between the impeller and motor (not nearly as easy as the first go). Took me two tries, but got her going. Ran about two minutes and kicked breaker. I saw some water in the bottom of the motor casing as I was scrambling my fat, old, contorted, crammed between deck supports, soaking wet butt back away from all the electrical business. When I primed the basket, I got soaked and figure the motor did as well. Thinking this is where the water came from and why I kicked a breaker.

So, is my prob the cent switch?

Much thanks, guys!!

Yes, it sounds like the switch. The way it works is when the motor is off, the contacts close and the starter winding is connected to the power. As the motor spins up, the switch moves outwards to the centrifugal force and opens the switch disengaging the starter winding.

So, take a look at the switch and in it's off closed position there should be some contacts that are closed. Those are the ones that should be cleaned. However, it could be a bad spring too which is not fully closing the switch when the motor is off so take a look at that too.

Much much thanks!

So, since it was open with the power off, that would probably mean the springs are bad, eh?

Gotta nap to get ready to work night shift. I'll get back on it asap.

Thank you very much for your help!!

Or it just needs some lube to get to slide again.