Plumbing question -- water pump

Heard my water pump kicking on 30 seconds/off 30 seconds.

Knew I had a slow drip (damp basement anyways so I hadn't hurried to fix it...) from a relief valve between the pump & pressure tank, so I thought if water was dripping out maybe it was letting air in. So I replaced that...still the same problem.

Doing more diagnostics:
Turn power off, you can hear "flow" -- water I believe, not air -- back towards the pump.

Turn the quarter-turn-valve by the pump off, and the flow stops and the pressure guage on the pump immediately goes to 0 psi.

If you turn power on with the valve off, the pump rapidly (several times per second) cycles on and off.

I do have pressure in the tank -- haven't put a guage on it, but with the pump off and the valve by it shut, I can still flush the toilets, brush teeth, etc. I've also put my finger against the garden hose outlet by the pressure tank, can't feel any leak there; and shutting the quarter turn valve that goes to the house doesn't solve the "leak" either.

I don't see any water around the pump -- at least not at the rate it would be going out with the flow I hear. Like I said, basement is pretty damp all summer long so there's a lot of condesation, etc normally.

I'm thinking at this point there must be check-valves in the pump that prevent the pressure tank from back-feeding through it, and that is stuck open? Where would I look for such a thing? And would the foot-valve allow such back-fed pressure to escape????

Thanks in advance,
Matt

My wife says she has a sign on her back that says

"kick me" lol

T_Bone

You more than likely have a suction check valve leaking also called a foot valve if in a well.

What it"s doing is building pressure on the pressure tank, pump cycles off, check valve lets water leak back into the suction piping thus lowering pressure and the pump kicks on once again.

You can add more than one check valve in the suction piping, in fact it"s recomended.

It could also be a water logged pressure tank. Shut the pump off, open a water spicket, then let air into the top of pressure tank. When air stops flowing into the tank shut air valve, shut facuet, start pump.

T_Bone

Sure sounds that way to me; bad check valve at the pump.

And, it sounds like it has cycled so much, to the point that the system is water-logged.

Allan