Pump Problem

I went to turn on my pump and it kinda made a dull noise and then quit. I cleaned out the pump basket, lots of cottonwood in it(as it is the season for it). The pump basket had a hole in it, so I am afraid the cottonwood clogged my pump motor. I tried it again and same thing, dull noise and then quit. Any suggestions of what I can do to unclog it?

Thanks,
Elle

36' Gunite IG
Sand Filter
1.5hp A.O. Smith Pump

Well, I took the pump apart to get to the impeller and there was just a little cottonwood in there. It started right back up when put back together.

Then today it stopped again. It burn right out. It seems the electrical connection may have been bad. When it was all disconnected, I noticed water coming out of the electrical cord!! How could water get in there??

The pump had also been shorting out. Every morning when I would go to turn it on, it would trip the circuit breaker.

Any ideas what was causing this??

Thanks,
Elle

36' IG Gunite
1.5 HP A.O. Smith pump
Sand Filter

The shaft seal assembly may be bad, if that's the case, you probably have a puddle under the middle of the pump. The seal has 2 parts, on that slides onto the impeller stem and the other which seats into the seal plate on the back of the pump housing.

Thanks for your reply. We figured out what went wrong. The pump was not clogged. It was an electrical problem caused by a dripping pipe above the electrical switch box. It was leaking into it, and down thru the electrial wires to pump!! Well, we did have to buy a new pump, but I am glad we figured out what caused the pump to burn out, or it would have happened again to new pump.