WHOOO HOOOOO!! IT WORKS!!!!!

YES!! I got home a little late, turned on the primer water from the house and ran the sprinkler system for 3 minutes on each of the 9 stations to clear the air out of the lines. Then started the pump for 25 minutes each on the 4 stations in the front yard. It is on station 2 right now, no leaks at the pump! Whew! I need to run back down and put the topper I built on the unit, and hopefully we will be in good shape for the summer, at least until the creek runs dry. Maybe we'll have enough rain to keep it up.
Major item off the punch list. Now back to the shop! Jim.

I saw your subject line and thought "Jim got the pump working". I see I was right. Congrats. How long have you been wrestling with that irrigation system?

3 years??? Yeah about that. Actually, the first summer we were here (04), it was very wet and we didn't need the sprinklers. The following year, I spent about 5 weeks getting things working and digging out all the heads that were burried. I counted about 9 when I started, ended up being close to 50!! The pump worked once or twice last year, then died. My dad had taken one of the pumps left here by the previous owner to tinker with and said he couldn't find a problem with it. Retrieved it and re did the plumbing and it worked while we had water in the creek last summer. Again this year, it worked fine for a couple times, then quit. Once I found the pump I wanted on E-bay, I had 4 weeks of run around from Pay-Pal, then sent a check for the pump. I've been building the stand so the pump will be off the ground, and the pump "house" that I can bring inside over the winter for about 4 weeks. Most of that it was too rainey to go work down at the creek. As it was, I did some sliding this week in the evenings getting the plumbing where it was hooked up with out leaking. The pump sits on a slight grade just outside the fence. Somehow I have a feeling I'll have some additonal problems to deal with next year. More than you asked for, huh? Jim.

WOW, Jim...50 heads? Do you have any pics of the area? Sounds like quite a project. I've got about 12 in my yard and 6 in the garden, on two systems.

Glad you got it working.

Congrats Jim! I installed our sprinkler system 20 years ago. Best $900 investment I ever made. I've redone it twice since due to building a shop, put in a couple of driveways and manufacturer of sprinkler heads going out of business. Still beats moving hoses and sprinklers!

Thanks guys. Greg, the system was in place, just burried. I did dig up about 40 heads and put new risers on them to be at ground level. Jus uncovered one of the solenoid valves the other day for one of the zones, by accident. I think there are still 1 or 2 of the valves I haven't found, but they work, so I'll save the time and aggrivation looking for them.
Here are a couple pics of the front and rear. Rears are blurry, took them after the ones in the front. Maybe it's a light problem?
front shots

and rear, with virutally no grass.
there are 4 zones in the front, 3 in the back, and 2 around the flower beds in the front. I have room in the controller for 3 more zones, but have no idea how this thing is laid out to know where to tap on for water! I could use one on the far left side of the first picture, and one or 2 in the back around the foundation. Jim.

you water your grass!!!!! man that makes it grow, then you have to mow it, thats work!!

When we lived in GA I never watered the grass, my one neighbor started watering my front yard, I politely informed him if he wanted to water he could mow it. He mowed my front yard the two summers we where there.

Actually the front does pretty well, there are 2 septic systems and the laterals are in the front yard!!
The back yard is where the dogs destroy the grass. There was a pretty good stand of St. Agustine back there when we moved in. First summer was ok since it was a wet summer. Second summer the sprinkler system didn't work, and we failed to water. Since then it has gone down hill. No grass, lots of mud when it rains, and dirt otherwise + 8 to 10 dogs = mad wife and lots of dirt in the house. We probably will only water a little out front. The back needs to grow grass. And with all the shade we have from trees back there, it's probably going to have the be St. Augustine grass and that means water.
Oh, and LOML usually mows! I have mowed twice so far this year, but even at that, it's not bad on a rider. Jim.