Wiring question...

[tn94z]

TweetI have a pool cover pump to pump the water off my pook cover. Well, the pump is not working. After taking it apart, I find that the circuit board (it detects resistance of the water and tells pump when to come on on go off) is burnt up. There are 2 wires that come out of the pump itself. The 25ft power cord has 3 wires. How can I wire the 3 wire cord directly to the 2 wire pump to make it work? I don't want to do anything wrong here and completely ruin it. I have a replacement coming but it will be 2-3 weeks. I am fairly certain the pump is still good but the circuit board won't allow it to come on.

[tiny]

TweetThe term "3 wire" is a bit confusing. Do you mean it has three conductors, or is it 3 wire which has 4 conductors?

If it has three conductors, it is likely standard wiring with +,-, and ground. Ground and the negative wire is the same, they just connect in different places, ground connects directly to the frame or chassis, where the negative conductor connects through the appliance then to the ground. If this is the case it's easy just connect the + and - to the matching wire, then the ground to a chassis point.

If it's 3 wire (which would indicate 220V pump) it will have two positive conductors (120V each), a negative, and a ground. 4 wires total. In this case, it stil wires up the same, you just have two positive conductors for the added voltage.

A picture is worth a thousand words, post one up if you need some more help.

[tn94z]

TweetSorry. The pump is just power and ground I assume. The power cord has a black, green, and white which I assume is power, ground, and neutral

[badcompany487]

TweetYou have a pm tn94

[tiny]

TweetIs the power cord removable or hard wired? If it's a removable plug, you should see the where the one wire (ground) goes from the pin of the recepticle to the metal framing or such. I assume the housing of the pump is plastic, so the ground you might have to follow to see where it connects. Grounds and the neutral conductor are essentially the same thing and they connect to the exact same place in your fuse/breaker box. The ground is a secondary connection for added shock prevention in the event of a failure/short circuit. At the end of the day, most electrical components will function 100% correctly without the ground wire attached.

Following standard wiring desingns:
White is the neutral conductor
Green is the ground (or bare wire)
Black is the hot wire

At the end of the day, if you connect the + to + and - to -, attach the gound wire, the pump should turn on and work correctly. I'm not sure what other types of controls/circuits are in the pump, but motors are usually pretty simple circuits. Again the ground wire is there for safety, if it was in use. Considering it's an outdoor pump which is designed to connect to a ground fault interupt(GFI), I would assume the ground was in use.