Booster pump spins freely, but only hums for about 4 seconds and won't kick in.

Polaaris PB4-60 3/4hp

Pump is 18 months old.

About a week ago I noticed my little buddy wasn’t cleaning the pool so I checked the booster pump and sure enough it was taking a break.

I noticed that when it was supposed to start it would hum for a few seconds and then nothing.  I popped the armature cover off the back and it spins easily.

Aha!  Ordered a new capacitor for it and installed it.  Fiiled with hope I restarted everyting - but was disappointed once more.

As I did not have a capacitor tester I ordered one and it came today.  I tested the original capacitor and it tested good.

I guess I will go out there in the rain and remove the new capacitor and test it too, but I have a sneaky feeling that I am wasting my time.

Next step will be to take the motor inside and take a peek inside it to see what is what.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Pat

Fixed it.

After throwing the capacitor at it with zero joy I did what I said I would do and went out in the rain and removed the motor, took it inside and took it apart a little.

Not sure what I was looking for other than maybe evidence it was burned out, which it wasn’t, surprisingly because this morning I timed it and every 3 minutes it would try and start, hum for about 6 seconds and then quit.  Over and over - been doing that for 10 days.  I went outside and the motor was pretty warm so I figured that now was a good time to take matters into my own hands.

I found that the clutch in the motor was stuck - so I freed it up as best I could then I degreased and cleaned all the contacts I could see.

Then I went out in the rain and re-installed it, fired up the main pump and 10 minutes later my little buddy at the bottom of the pool started working again!   Success!

Total cost - $0.00

Thank you for the update! My guess would have been the windings and that would have required a new motor. I’m glad it turned out to be a simple fix.