Old Water Well - Sucker Rod Down The Pipe

nolarefugee · May 3, 2011

I have an old sucker rod type of water well at the farm. It has about a two inch casing with an old Fairbanks-Morse pump sitting on it. It has about a six inch throw that attaches to the sucker rod.

The well is about 30-40 feet deep.

The rod has fallen down in the well.

Does anyone have a method of retrieving the rod and the rest of the plunger etc down in the well?

rootytoot · May 3, 2011

Is the sucker rod galvanized (like many old installations), or PVC (as many new installations are)?

Kurt

nolarefugee · May 3, 2011

The sucker rod segments are wooden.

Egon · May 3, 2011

Pull the tubing.

Kays Supply · May 3, 2011

Years ago I worked at a shop that had a contraption that was for doing just that. It was a cone shaped head that had a cam type grabber. You hung it down the well on pipe sections until you felt the rod / pipe. You rotated it until you felt it cam over the rod/pipe. You then pulled it up. Time to go to the shop and make you one.

Rocksprings · May 3, 2011

I have a similar windmill well with old wooden rods but it is 450 ft deep. While changing the leathers my well man dropped the remaining rods which were not taken apart and removed yet. I think there was about 10-12 rods that fell to the bottom of the well. He got out a tubular looking piece of metal about 10 ft long and lowered it down the hole and somehow the end went over the rod and he was able to pull it up. Keep in mine he has a large truck with boom, hoist, electric push button control, ect. Hope this gives you an idea of where to start, good luck. Sounds like the same thing Kays Supply is talking about. Between then and now I got an electric pump, ect.

nolarefugee · May 3, 2011

I happened to have a piece of PVC and was able to send it down an jam it over the broke rod. But when I tried to pull it up, it wouldn't budge before it slipped off.

I'm thinking of using maybe steel pipe with a nipple that's threaded to try to jam over the rod, then twist onto it. Then put a come along attached to the pipe, that's attached to something I build over it...

Rocksprings · May 3, 2011

nolarefugee said:
I happened to have a piece of PVC and was able to send it down an jam it over the broke rod. But when I tried to pull it up, it wouldn't budge before it slipped off.

I'm thinking of using maybe steel pipe with a nipple that's threaded to try to jam over the rod, then twist onto it. Then put a come along attached to the pipe, that's attached to something I build over it...

You got the right idea, good luck.

Bird · May 3, 2011

Whew, this brings back bad memories of when I was a kid in the early '50s in Healdton, OK. We had a windmill on a really good well. If I remember right, it was only abour 125' deep. But a few times the sucker rod (metal, of course, never knew they used wooded ones) came unscrewed down in the well, and for a 12-14 year old kid, especially in cold weather, climbing up there and disconnecting the rod from the windmill head or motor and fishing around and screwing it back together, then pulling it up enough to hook it back up to the motor . . . well, like I said, brings back bad memories.

Egon · May 3, 2011

So you get a Fish Tool on the sucker rod but then what??

Pull hard enough and something else breaks?

The pump is still hung on the tubing and don't come up with the sucker rod.

Pull the Tubing. There really ain't much of it. Might get wet if the tubing is full of water though.

Could be cold out too!

Google aero motor and see what the setup looks like