Pump Electrical Issue

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How was it wired before?

I am only guessing, but I think the bare ground wire going to the ground was some attempt at bonding the metal box.

If the 12/2 yellow wire has a ground, and it is properly grounded back at the source panel, then connect that ground and the hot and neutral to the GFCI. Just leave the bond wire connected at the back of the metal box. You will also want to bond the pump. There should be a lug on the outside of the pump for this. You can connect it to that bare copper if you can get to it in the ground. Use a split bolt connector.

Did you determine how many amps the pump is drawing?
 
Randrx2 said:
How was it wired before?

I am only guessing, but I think the bare ground wire going to the ground was some attempt at bonding the metal box.

If the 12/2 yellow wire has a ground, and it is properly grounded back at the source panel, then connect that ground and the hot and neutral to the GFCI. Just leave the bond wire connected at the back of the metal box. You will also want to bond the pump. There should be a lug on the outside of the pump for this. You can connect it to that bare copper if you can get to it in the ground. Use a split bolt connector.

Did you determine how many amps the pump is drawing?
Click to expand...
Previously the green pigtail was connected to the GFCI and the ground from the 12/2 was just shoved in the box not connected to anything.

What would the ground rod be bonding the metal box to? It just goes straight into the ground and doesn't connect to anything else as far as I can tell. So it would only be bonding to the ground around it I guess. I will do some cautious digging and see if I can find anything else out.

Isnt the pump already indirectly bonded to this ground rod through its power cord->gfci->metal box? Is direct bonding beneficial in this case?

Clamp Ammeter arrived today but I want to wait for my replacement power cord to measure amps in case I need to remove the outer insulation from the current cord to be able to get it around just one conductor.
 
You can connect the pigtail from the metal box to the receptacle. Also connect the ground in the 12/2 to the receptacle.

The bonding path is different then the ground fault path.

For the bonding, you are essentially connecting all the metal parts together to make everything the same potential to reduce the possibility of a shock if a fault occurs.

I am unsure why they dropped a bare wire into ground. You may dig it up and find they ran a grid around the pool!
 
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Finally was able to take amp measurements. It was about 13.5 amps with the old cord and then dropped to 10 with the replacement cord.

Was also able to trace the "ground" wire and I think you were right about it being an attempt at bonding. It didn't go very far into the ground at all and then there was an elbow in the conduit and then it just ends. I assume it was connected to an old pump at one time and someone just cut it and left it there. See my pic attached, sorry its not the best. The green line is the "buried" portion and the green circle is where it just ends. So should I clean this up and connect it to the pumps bonding lug?

IMG_20200614_201739.jpg
 
You may have had a high resistance connection in that wire causing he higher amps.

Technically, it is metal near your pool, so you can connect. However, since it is not a proper bound or ground, I would not connect it.
 
Randrx2 said:
You may have had a high resistance connection in that wire causing he higher amps.

Technically, it is metal near your pool, so you can connect. However, since it is not a proper bound or ground, I would not connect it.
Click to expand...

Should I remove it instead? Its not actually grounding the outlet either so I would like to remove it completely to avoid future confusion unless there is a reason I shouldn't.
 
Haha! I replied to this. It must have not taken.

Yep, remove it. It is not the proper way to bond and it is not doing anything. You need to add the proper bonding.
 

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