Have a neighbor that changed the wiring on well pump (3 wire). He ran 3 conductor to pump and no ground. He states that the water will be his ground? Is this possible to wire the pump that way?

No,


He states that the water will be his ground? Is this possible to wire the pump that way?

Cannot use the metal water line as an equipment ground.

The feeder to the pump is 3 wire, only two are the live 240 volts, the third is intened to act as the equipment ground.

Unless the pump needs 3 wire to oeprate, that I am not aware of.

Yes the pump is a 3 wire and has a control box he blew his capacitor twice now. The 3 wires he is running down to the pump are the 2 hot and the control. He did not run a ground wire, the pump hangs in the lake a he said he was told that the lake will be his ground?

Nope, still will not work.

The purpose of an equipment ground that comes from the power source is to insure the fault current returns to the source, in a low impedance path, to facilitate the overcurrent device, AKA circuit breaker or fuse, to open quickly in the event of a fault.

Can you provide a datasheet of the pump motor and control so I can see why 3 branch circuit conducotrs are needed?

Is this why he keeps blowing capacitors?

Could be. All depends on how these 3 wires are connected.

A datasheet will be helpful to learn what is there and how it is to be connected.

Pump is 5 years old and I do not think he has them, I'll ask when I see him tonight. He bought a new capacitor and a well wire kit and wants me to drop by.

They way he has them wired is come off pressure switch to control box, the wires out of the control box runs down to pump and red to red, black to black and third wire to yellow on pump, ground on pump cut an just hanging...

The datasheet should be available on the internet if you can provide the manufacturer and model number of the unit.

Pump covered with algae will look for it.