Emptying My Pool : A Pictured Problem

[CHRMON]

Hello, this is my first post. My parents asked me to maintain our above ground swimming pool this summer. Today I came across my first big problem and I could use some advice.

Some context first. We're having a new liner installed on Thursday. That means I need to drain the pool in the next 48 hours. I haven't opened the pool yet and I doubt there is more than five inches of water in it. I've already started siphoning water out with a garden hose. A cool method, by the way, which seemingly defies the laws of physics. Unfortunately it is nowhere near fast enough.

So I decided to use the drain located at the bottom of the pool.

I blocked the skimmer using the valve beneath it.

I set the sand filter to waste and secured a blue hose to the waste exit.

I filled the motor with water and set it to low. Nothing really changed, apart from the motor now humming quietly. I removed the blue hose, held a bucket under waste exit, and noticed no water was coming out. The motor still running, I opened the cap and saw that pool water wasn't coming into the machine.

Does this mean the main drain is clogged? Perhaps the motor broken? Or have I overlooked something?

Please help!

Edit by moderator. Take a look at how I edited your first picture so that people do not have to click links. Right click on the picture at your link and copy the image URL and paste it in the [s:33o71k4o]OMG[/s:33o71k4o] IMG tags. Thanks, jblizzle
Edit by CHRMON. Fixed it, thanks.
Oops ... fixed my OMG tag to be IMG ... although the former is how I feel about some of the current threads I am in today

 

[Richard320]

Is there a pipe running up from the drain to the valve by the skimmer? I can't see. Or is there a valve closer to the filter? I'm also unfamiliar with that valve. Perhaps a different position will block the skimmer and open the drain?

Try stuffing a garden hose with a rag around it in the pump strainer inlet and blast water backwards through the pipes. If you see action in the drain, then it just needs more priming, trying to lift water up from the drain to the valve and then to the pump is too much for that setup. In which case, fill the line from inside the skimmer.

Last resort would be to disconnect some plumbing and start stuffing a hose in the various ports and see if someone plugged the drain some time in the past.