Question
We have a 17 year old Sta-Rite 1.5 HP lawn pump.  It was working fine until a few days ago.  The timer is a Intermatic and it still ticking but no water is coming out when we flip it on manually.  We have checked the breakers for trips as we did have some storms afew days ago.  We had a sprinkler repair man come out and he basically looked at how old the pump was and said it needed to be replaced.  My question is should we check for something else before replacing the entire lawn pump?  Also, how difficult is it to replace your own lawn pump especially if we get the same model and HP? Thanks!
Jen

Answer
17 years is a heck of a long time for a pump.  To make it easy on yourself, get a new one that is as close to the old one as possible.  Take a few digital pictures of the old setup, and then remove the old pump, then using your pictures as a reference, put in the new one.  Remember to use a good pipe thread sealant at all the connections.