I know that riff well, now it’s in my head. The manhole cover over the pit was a small one too, I could fit barely and the first thing your foot hit on the way down to step on was the top of the motor. You had to get out the same way and place your foot just right and heave yourself out. Hope it goes well at menards.
I finally got time to get the defective Barracuda pump cleaned up and everything reassembled (I’d pulled off the pressure switch for remote mounting, among other things) and returned it to Menards. It looked just like new, except for my additions of fitting sizes to the drawing in the manual, LOL!
It took getting the Plumbing Dept. Manager over to the returns desk to get the return ok’d, but, now they have the pump and I have my $$ back. :-)
This last weekend I finally got around to something else I’ve been meaning to do to upgrade the well system for a long time: The pressure switch relay no longer turns the pump on directly, instead, it powers a 35 amp 600 volt mercury wetted relay that turns the pump on and off. That’s the “resistive load” rating, but, the (NOS) mercury wetted relay turning on the pump is probably good for a million cycles or so: A lot longer lifetime than I’ll have! (For me, I suppose NOS means “now old stock” - hahaha!) If I really want to go nuts with it, I can add a spark suppressor to the pressure switch relay contacts, although the thing is functioning at maybe 1% of it’s original workload.
A final touch will be adding a longer 1/8” ID line from the pump to the pressure switch, so I can mount the pressure switch higher. That’s a little for easier access, and a lot to hopefully get the switch / relay above any “water accidents” that may occur in years to come. The “new” standard of pressure switches mounted directly on the side - front of the well pump is, IMO, “nuts”, and just asking for big trouble for / danger to the operator or repairman. I’ve worked with electricity all my life, and getting electrocuted is NOT on my bucket list.