Halcyon pump for polaris - buzz but no pumping

[dejswa]

Thank you for reading.

I searched related topics here and found nothing related, so here goes . . .

I have a standard Halcyon booster pump for Polaris cleaner. The pump and pool had been inactive for about a year. I cleaned and restored the pool. The entire rest of the system is circulating and running well with an Intelliflow main pump.

I initially powered up the Halcyon pump and it just hummed loudly for a moment and I promptly shut it off before it could trip the internal temp switch. I figured it was jammed from sitting still for a year and removed the impeller cover. Sure enough, the impeller was stuck but I turned it by hand with just a little effort to unstick it and when I restored power to the pump with the impeller exposed, it spun at high speed. I then replaced the gasket and cover and tightened the band on the cover. I restarted it and it moved water as expected from the auxiliary outlet.

Later that day, when I tried turning it on again, it hummed and did not spin. I again removed the impeller cover and the impeller was very free spinning. I powered the pump up but it just hummed and the impeller did not spin even when I manually and easily turned it. The temp protection clicked as expected and after cooling, it did the same thing again.

So I need to troubleshoot.

1) The spindle is free turning and is not bound
2) The motor gets power and hums when powered on
3) But the spindle does not turn at all

Electrically, it sounds and acts the way the motor would act if the impeller was jammed, but it is not jammed.

Any ideas?

Regards . . .

 

[mas985]

When you spin the impeller by hand and let go, does it continue to spin for at least one revolution? If not, the bearings or seal might be bad. If it does, then you might check for a bad start capacitor. Another possibility could be the centrifugal switch in the back. Dirty contacts can cause start problems.

 

[dejswa]

The impeller does indeed spin quite freely, yes, one or more rotations when I give it a good twist. Doesn't seem to be a bearing thing.

I will see if I can get to the capacitor and centrifugal switch. Good idea.

1) Would the cap likely be shorted or open if bad? I'll do a multimeter test anyway.
2) Haven't taken a look yet, but any tips on opening the thing to get to the switch?

Thanks for your reply! Will let you know what I find.

 

[mas985]

1) Either. Remove the leads to the cap then short/discharge with a screw driver. Put an ohm meter on the cap and it should read very low ohms at first but then climb to infinite ohms as the cap charges.

2) The switch is in the end cap of the motor. Should only require removing two screws to remove the cover.

 

[dejswa]

A bit of followup to the problem.

I took the capacitor cover off and was about to do further disassembly. I had taken off the impeller cover again to see how it was turning. I turned the thing on for a moment just for the heck of it and it ran! Then I closed it up and now it is running well! It's a mystery. Perhaps it is a sticky centrifugal switch?

Well I guess I'll troubleshoot again if the need arises. Meanwhile thank you for your help.