Aerobic Septic Tank - Replacing Pump

[poor-roger]

The gentleman who built this house was a worry-wart and put in a manual switched pump rather than a float-level activated pump.

When plugging in the pump it has started grounding out (assumably at the pump) and tripping a breaker. So........I'm sitting here with a full tank and no way to drain it, short of renting a portable pump....and it's Saturday evening.

My problem is that the pump seems to be larger than the hole in the lid of the tank. Can't get it out to replace it.

What if I bring it up to the top of the tank (about a foot deep) and saw the pump off the PVC pipe and let it R.I.P at the bottom of the tank?

Then I'll install a pump with a float switch.....I think.

Any help or advice will be appreciated.

Many thanks.

JR....out in the Desert of NM

[suemarkp]

Are you going through the right hole? There should be an input lid and output lid, each about 8" in diameter. In the middle should be the main pumping hole which is more like 18" diameter. The pump got in there somehow...

[poor-roger]

Are you going through the right hole? There should be an input lid and output lid, each about 8" in diameter. In the middle should be the main pumping hole which is more like 18" diameter.

Yep, right hole......wrong size! I'm assuming when the lid was lifted during installation, the PVC pipe was inserted through the 4" hole and the pump installed to it on the other (lower) side, then the lid was placed on the tank.

The reason I know it's the right hole is because the pump is installed on the PVC pipe which goes through the hole. I can lift the PVC pipe with the pump attached to the bottom end up from the bottom of the tank to the lid..... where it stops because it's too large to come out the hole.

I can take my tractor and scrape the dirt down to the top of the lid and take a look, I guess.

However, if the pump is no good, why not just whack it off and let it R.I.P at the bottom of the tank and stick a new slim model on the pipe and reinstall?

The pump got in there somehow....

That's what my grandpa said sixty years ago when, on halloween, some mischevious boys disassembled his old horse-drawn wagon, reassemblied it in a stall with a small door and left the tongue sticking out the door. He didn't know how it got there either :dontknow:.

Regards,

Jim