I recently noticed that my pump was short cycling. I suspected that the problem was with the pressure tank (either a ruptured bladder or it simply needed to be re-pressurized.)

I hooked up a tire pressure gauge to the air valve on the tank and go no pressure reading. I knocked on both the top and bottom half of the tank and and both sound solid indicating that water has filled most of the tank. I shut off the power to the pump opened both the spigot in the backyard and the service spigot at the pump.

I only managed to get about a 1/4 gallon of water to come out. I tried to pump air though the air as an effort to get more water out but I can't seem to get any air into the tank at all using a hand pump really trying to force it in a times.

My hope was to get some air into the top of the tank as a temporary fix so I could put off replacing the tank. The service spigot is not at the bottom, it's about a foot lower than the top of the tank. I've considered cutting the line at the point that it goes to the bottom of the tank but I don't have the tools on hand to hook it back up (pex tubing was used).

If anybody has any ideas on how to at least get it halfway empty without having to tear things apart, that would be great.