Another humming pump...........

[aylad]

I'm almost positive that we did change the seal assembly at that time, but I wouldn't bet my life on it. I do remember replacing one set of seals but not sure if it was between the pump/motor or the motor and housing. But when we replaced the impeller shaft, we never had to open up the motor itself--the part that broke off was outside the motor, does that make sense? I wish I still had my pics but they were on my phone and got erased in the last backup glitch. I think I emailed them to Al, maybe he'll still have them. I have to work tomorrow, but maybe Monday I'll have a chance to open it up again and see whether the shaft spins or not. My brother hasn't had a chance to get out here yet, looks like I may have to call a pro if I have any hope of getting it done before it actually gets cold out......

Janet

[Poconos]

Hi Jan,
Ted is right on so far. If the shaft is seized then you will hear a real loud hum and after some short time the thermal breaker will open. That's located in the back of the motor where the wires enter. With a seized shaft the motor pulls a lot of current. If the shaft turns freely and the hum is a low level then there are two possibilities. One the starting capacitor has opened or two, the starting switch contacts are really crummy. That 2x4 trick may or may not work. It won't if the contacts are really bad.
Gotta run....back later.
Al
More: Smacking the motor will sometimes shock the switch contacts enough to make contact. If the shaft turns freely and the hum is loud then probably the starting capacitor is shorted.
Al

[aylad]

okay, status on my pump (we won't talk about the Mountain Dew colored pool at this point! )

The impeller was seized up, but some working back and forth freed it up and now it's working with no problem. Put the pump back together, it makes all the right noises and works fine--except now it's leaking like crazy. When I first put it back together, there was a small leak from underneath the motor where it meets the housing. Took it back apart, repositioned the gasket between the motor and the housing, and put it back together-- it still works, but now is leaking worse. Thought maybe I put the gasket back in the wrong place, but there is a channel for it there and I can't imagine any other way to put it on. Anyway, everytime I take it apart and put it back together, the leak gets worse and worse.

Because the motor itself works now, I'm looking at the pump pieces. The impeller and diffuser are fine, so the only thing left to replace are the seals. I read somewhere that if the impeller seal is going bad, it will cause a progressively worse leak on the bottom side of the pump, so hubby is now on his way to the pool store to get a complete set of seals and gaskets. We'll just replace them all and see what happens from there. At least I got it running long enough to get a shock dose of bleach in the pool, but I don't want to keep running it until it's no longer leaking for fear of really screwing up the motor.

Al, I left you a couple of phone messages, but I think I answered the question already that I had for you....

[Poconos]

Something I thought about after we chatted.....since you can't see exactly where the water is leaking, from the mating surfaces that that O-ring is supposed to seal or from the motor air vents which would be the shaft seal, while you have it apart take a close look for any cracks in the pump housing. Highly unlikely but if there is one it could be opening up when you torque the bolts.
Catch ya later.
Al

[aylad]

OK, I'll check. The one thing I forgot to mention is that every time I put it together, the leak gets worse--hoping that confirms the suspicion about the bad seal....

Jan

[aylad]

The seal was the problem--the old one just crumbled away when I took the pump apart. So now it's working, not leakng, but it's VERY loud..and since I had to run it overnite last night because I'm cleaning up the green that happened while I waited for warm weather to work on it, the longer it ran last night, the louder it got. So--am I correct in thinking my bearings are bad. And if so, What kind of time do I have before it quits?

[waste]

Hi, Jan. Happy 2012!

I'd say the bearings are indeed bad. If they are, I can't give you a time-frame on total seizure but it should still start as long as you can manually get the shaft to spin.

Do you have a small electric motor repair place nearby that will give you a 60+ day warranty on repacking the bearings? If not, I fear you are looking at a new motor for the new year.

Please keep us informed as to what's going on and we'll advise/ help, as best we can.