There are a couple of preliminary tests you could do.

First, try finding the ground resistence of the motor. Put the multi-meter in kilo-ohms and check the resistence between the motor body(or your metallic connector box) and the terminals of the motor. It should show a fairly high value- could be 100 K-ohms or above. Else, there is a ground leakage- this is probably the reason why you get shock.

Next, you could find the resistance of the winding. Connect between the terminals. (I don't know the type of motor used). Across the motor windings you should get a low finite value- could be a couple of hundred ohms.

Narayanan UM
umn@ieee.org

My thoughts on the pool motor is exactly what was said before by checking the motor to ground and checking the resistance between the two terminals or wires of the motor. If the resistance is too high or you have no reading at all, chances are you have either tripped a breaker or blown a fuse, or in most cases, motors which are single phase 120 or 230 volts, have a manual reset button located by the back endbell or opposite of the drive endbell. They are usually red in color and sometimes it takes quite a bit of pressure with your thumb to reset it. By the way, you are doing this with the power off.  After applying pressure to the reset, you should hear a "click", that means the overload has been reset.  When your pumpmotor starts again after you turned it on, listen for any unusual noise such as bearing problems or winning of the windings.  If the overload should trip your motor off, then its time to get the motor or pump checked out.  There are other reasons for tripping the overload, such as low votage, or a bad starting capacitor or even a bad internal stationary or rotating switch.  Hope this helps out.