Pump Motor running hot and hesitates when starting

[Poconos]

Hi Tom and welcome to the forum. You're probably right in that the heat isn't related to the hesitation on start. Have some questions:
-- When it does start does it sound normal and come up to full speed?
-- Does it hesitate to start every time?
-- On a cold start how long does it take to get to what you call hot? Remember it is normal for the case to hit 140 degrees or so.

Ventilation is easy to check as it seems you know. If you had a shorted winding you would probably smell smoke. The hesitation is pointing to dirty starter centrifugal switch contacts, or a connection that loosened, or an intermittant starter capacitor but this is unlikely. Let's see the answers to my questions before we go further.
Al

[gottliebo]

Hi Al:

1. When it starts, yes it sounds normal, except sometimes (progressively more frequent it seems) it hums for a few seconds before it kicks in. Sometimes as long as 5 seconds.

2. No. it doesn't hesitate every time. I'm kind of afraid to turn it off now for fear that it won't kick in at all.

3. I will turn it off tonight and let it cool dow and try to determine how long it takes to heat up to what I perceive to be the "hot" temperature. 140 degrees seems fairly hot but I think it is hotter than that. I can touch it and hold my hand there for only about 2 or 3 seconds.

4. No smell of smoke. Everything (sound, flow, pressure) seems normal but for the starting delay and the heat.

I really appreciate the help. Thank you.

Tom