Before you crawl down and mess with the pump, remove that screw in the
center of the faucet, and see if you have a broken wire / dirty contacts.
It's a pretty simple arrangement in there, I had intermittent operation on
mine due to a broke wire on a ring terminal that connects to one of the
contacts. If I twisted juuuust right, I'd get contact (sometimes). I
crimped on a new ring, and have been trouble free since (no trouble with
the faucet, anyway :-).

At 01:56 PM 6/22/2006 -0700, Mike Elliott wrote:
>Hm, the shakedown trip derby continues.
>
>Mellow Yellow has bee sitting idle for eight months with an empty
>freshwater tank. I've put water into the tank but the faucet ain't
>pumping water. I can hear the pump motor growl for a few seconds, then
>it shuts off. These things need priming?
>
>--
>Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
>71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
>84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
>74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
>KG6RCR