I have several related questions. First the setup. One of the seals on my pump apprears to have gone bad right around the time we closed the pool, so that the pump ran dry for a while before I noticed. My plan was to replace the seals (with one of those Go Kits), the diffuser (which, upon inspection, I discovered had a small hole in it), and the wire whip (the whip fittings into the pump had largely disintegrated and the insullation on the wiring near the pump was all cracked--not sure why, as the wiring on the motor that I could see, as well as in the rest of the whip, looked fine). I did notice some corrosion on the motor, which makes me think that there has been a slow leak for a while. Before I put it back together, I wanted to test the motor to see if it still worked. I wired it and ran it without being connected to the rest of the pump. It made its usual starting noises, started up slowly, and then kicked into gear at what seemed to be full speed, making no strange noises and otherwise seeming fine. Within few seconds, however, there was a puff of smoke that appeared to come from from what looks like a capacitor in the end near the wiring (the end cap was off) and the circuit breaker flipped off. Of course, the smoke could have come from behind the capacitor, but who knows? I did try it once more, but was afraid to let it run long enough to see if it would smoke and trip the circuit breaker again -- as soon as it hit full speed (once again with no strange noises or other aberant behaivor), I shut it off.
For reference, the motor is a U.S. Motors Model T55CXCJJ-1344, which replaced the original Pentair AE100GHL motor in a Sta-Rite Max-E-Glas II Pool Pump Model No. P4E6G-189L. Here are the questions:
1. Is the motor shot and should I just replace it? Mind you, I do not want to spend a huge amount of time nursing along a dying motor, and I especially do not want to delay the opening of my pool this spring waiting for a new pump to arrive.
2. Having said that, is it likely that replacing the capacitor will fix it? My suspicion is no, but what do I know?
3. How stupid of me was it to run the motor dry? I know that you should never run the pump dry, but the disconnected motor itself?
4. If I do replace the motor, how do I select among brands? Are some better than others?
5. If I do replace the motor, should I stick with a direct replacement (e.g., an SQ1202) or should I go with something "better" or more efficient (maybe a 2-speed or something)?
6. Does it actually matter if there is a small hole in the diffuser? How does it affect performence, leakage, etc.? (I've already replaced it, so the question is academic.)
7. Is there any way to test my repairs before the pool opens in the spring?
Thanks!
