50yr old electric well pump

I found an old well that was dug around 40 to 50 years ago. The well is a 1 ft wide metal tube going straight into the ground around 30-40 ft. The old well was hooked into city electric and it used an electric pump to pump water to an old farmhouse. I am curious if I can still use the well, or if the well pump even works. The electric wire goes straight into the well, and I am unable to see exactly where it goes. The electric wire goes underground and hooks into the old farmhouse that has since ruined all of its electric lines.

Would it be possible to hook a solar system onto the red and black wire and turn it on? If the old electric pump does not work is it even possible for me to get it out? Should I just install a whole new system alongside the old? My goal is to use it in the easiest way, heck maybe a windmill would be best.

Any thoughts or input would be appreciated.

Hi Josh;

Other than contamination from not being used (IE dead rodents and such)
I would expect you can use the water.
I certainly would have it tested before drinking it but to irrigate it should be fine.

You should be able to lift the pump up by the wires, normally they would have had a cable twisted in with the wires.

No, a  dc solar panel should not be connected to an ac pump.

A windmill piston pump works great for a stock pond or a cistern.

Have you heard of using compressed air for pumping water out of a well?
frytvnow shows how his works on utube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVC-z3GyLk8

I play with electricity but I dont know much.
I would ask an electrician who works with pumps for advise and maybe a service call.
\I imagine he would have a method of testing the unit, and a method of lifting it out.
Have you drop a line down to check its depth?
Maybe build a tripod to hang a pulley on to make it easier to lift the pump and get the cables out of the way and not tangled.
It might be the best $150 you spend?

John C Daley wrote:I would ask an electrician who works with pumps for advise and maybe a service call. ...

It might be the best $150 you spend?

This is a great idea though I would suggest getting a person who is knowledgeable about well to come out.

When we bought our property we had the local well driller come out and access our well.

Also usually there is online information about wells such as depth, age, who drilled the well, etc.

As has been mentioned a solar setup should not be used. Most will not have the juice to start up even a shallow pump unless it was designed for it.

Also, the last time I had a well pump changed, they came out to do it and I learned that there is a part several feet down the pipe that needs to be unscrewed and disconnected before pulling things up. While it's possible to do this yourself, I'm going to agree with those before me and suggest getting someone who works on wells. If you were to pull the wires without disconnecting the pipe you could break it the wires or pipe... which would naturally make it harder to test :)