Yes I primed the system and yes it does still sound like it has air in it, which is weird.

Took the hoses back off it and found there's a small mesh screen inside the inlet. I took that part of the pump apart and cleaned it out. Got the pump back up and running and it did the same thing within the hour. Checked the screen again and it had more stuff stuck to it, but not as bad as before. This is what's getting past my skimmer and should be getting caught in the filter, but it's not getting that far. Needless to say, I put the pump back into the shed and am now using my old one again now that it has dried out.

In the 3 years I've owned my older pump I never had this problem. It's just the newer one that's giving me trouble. I'm guessing it's a design flaw, but who knows. In any case, it's not worth the aggravation.