Hello,
I have a "new" 110 volt 1.5 hp Hayward Power-Flo LX pump.
I bought this pump from a guy in the local paper, it was still in the box, unopened, we open it and ran the pump for a couple seconds to verify it started. The pump appeared to be never ran, looked brand new, with all the packing material and manual in the box. The seller stated he changed his mind on installing a pool at his house.

The reason I bouhght the pump ---
I have 1.5" sump line under my fiberglass pool, ground water settles under there and I need to pull it out. To much ground water makes the base sand mushy and can cause bad problems with the shell. (my neighbors has majorly cracked right down the middle of thier pool....)
I have seen my pool installer do this with out issue a several times when they were building the pool and draining the pool for maintenance the last 2 years in the fall. They used a 1.5 hp Hayward superpump. They hooked the sump line up to the intake side of the pump poured in some prime water and the ground water comes gushing out the open end of the pump when they turn it on.

When I try this I get nothing with the new pump, the prime water pours out then nothing is pulled in from the sump line. The pump runs fine - no crazy noises, runs smooth and seems to be at full rpm, etc.
I snaked a garden hose down the 1.5" sump line(pipe) and there is water in there for sure.
I have also sat the pump on my pool deck with the a 4' piece of 1.5" flex pipe in the pool and the output pouring back into the pool and I can barely get a trickle of water to be pulled through and dumped back in to the pool. The pump is only 1' above the water line when I try this. Surely it should pull a steady full stream of water - shouldn't it?

I have glued my pipes together - there is only one drain plug in the bottom of the basket and it is tight with teflon tape. I have no leaks that I can see.
I put my finger over the end drain plug and ran the pump primed and it barely creates any suction. A tiny amount but not much. Nothing like my main pool pump that is a 1.5 SuperPump, when I am vacuming with it, it will suck your fingers off! The gasket around the stainer lid appears fine, still has a little bit of the factory "grease" on it, again this all looks brand new. I have the pump on a 20 amp circuit with a heavy duty 15 amp cord running to the outlet.

So -
Is the pump bad?
Are the LX pumps bad vs the SuperPumps?
Is something in the impellor of this pump?
Did I miss something during setup of this pump?

thanks for your suggestions.
Kevin