Can you feel any water coming out of the return when the pump is on? If the gauge is working then if there is very low pressure it could read zero but it is not doing much good. Have you cleaned the filter?
I'm not sure which is the return line. I can feel the water being sucked from the pool in the skimmer box, just not as high as it once was. No, haven't cleaned the filter. From what I read, if its reading 0 on the gauge, then the low pressure has to be from the impeller or earlier as from that point on, it should be pressurized.
Or did the hose you used to connect to the pipe explode?
It was the pipe that he was using to connect into the pool pipes.. so none of the pool pipes exploded. I'm starting to think the fact it exploded was some other reason unrelated. It had worked for a few minutes before. Then he stopped and tried again.
If you haven't done this, prime the pump and let it run for a longer time, up to 5 min or so. Then prime again and repeat. Then once more. Could be the line isn't obstructed but you just have a LOT of air in it.
So I've had the pump on for over an hour now. It is pumping without issue.. just about half the original flow.
Disassemble the pump as KK suggested
I couldn't seem to get to anything near the impeller- it seems to be quite a distance to it from where I take the basket out. Can I safely pull this apart? There is about 6 bolts connecting the pump together- can I remove these to see?
Try to flush the line backwards (from the pump end) with water not air. Water, even low flow may be able to slowly break up the leaf-jam you may have.
We had tried this earlier - we had one pump pushing water back into the pool through the skimmer line and another pump at the skimmer line pumping water out. It did pull out a hand full of leaves but not the mother lode that I assume is in there. I wonder if we had left it longer if it would have eventually got it.
Use a snake camera from the pump end and inspect the line. back to the pool.
I couldn't get the snake camera in far enough. When I put it into the hole near the inlet into the pool pump, I can see some leaves around a few bends that obviously are stuck, but it doesn't seem to be enough to stop the flow. I'm wondering if there is more around that corner that I simply can't see? I hope not as that is going into the concrete! I'll take another look over the weekend with the camera and grab some photos.
Thanks for the help thus far guys!
I will call a professional.. i'm just not sure who that is yet (pool guy, plumber or a mate to help me dig up the concrete!)