Sat lightning storms have knocked out my well pump for watering cows. No obvious signs of a strike however. The Pump company is saying we are probably gonna have replace everything except the pipe. (Pump and motor as well as the wire). He says the pump is grounded. Panel shows at start up it gets overloaded and shuts back off and then waits 60 seconds and tries again. It does this over and over. I just upgraded to 3 phase power in Sept of 2023 so I know what a huge expense this could be. (Current insurance policy doesn't cover for this). So the question is how do I know if this is on the up and up or am I potentially getting scammed? The jobber said he will meg? The wire but as someone with no knowledge in this area how do I know if he is telling me the truth about its integrity?

Any help or info would be greatly appreciated.

Megging the wire/motor tests the insulation and verifies that there is not a short in the wire or motor.

You would test each leg to ground and each leg to leg. If you a short that was caused by lightening it would test bad.

You could have had a lightening current run down a power leg and it would short out the motor seeking a path to ground.

If you go new they make an arrestor that goes inside your pump control box.
I lost a pump at our ranch in Texas from lightning. The well guy told me about them. I installed them on all our ranch wells and never had another issue….and lots of storms.

If you're replacing everything, look at a variable frequency drive with strikesorbs.

We use these setups in ag irrigation regularly with great success.

This does happen unfortunately. Replacing the starter & wire are the norm when replacing a water well submersible pump.

You mentioned you added 3 phase power. Did you run 3 phase power to your pump shed? How deep is your well? A typical residential water well only needs an add-a-phase setup.

Update after a full day. The pump motor was seized and replaced. The electrical megged at 90% and was put back in the hole. Pump tested fine and was also put back. Strange thing though. As soon as it ran and the tank filled the panel showed "sleep mode" and all went quiet. This has literally never once shown on the panel since the 3 phase and panel upgrade. (Previously it always Sounded like it's running 24/7). When I asked the pump guy he said "ya that's what it's supposed to do". Ummmm but it's never done that. After a long conversation it was finally admitted that a ck valve has been leaking back and calling for the motor to in fact run non stop. I'm assuming that tends to lead to a very short life on the pump motor.

The well is 1,150 feet deep and no 3 phase to the pump house just the well.