SPRINKLER TALK FORUM - You Got Questions, We've Got Answers

Okay, so my husband and I bought a house in December of 2011. This is our first place with a sprinkler system. At the beginning of the season everything functioned properly. Not so much anymore. The first issue we had was that one of our seven zones wouldn't turn on. After messing with it for a day and a half we discovered that it wasn't the only one. We found that the ground wire between zones 2 & 3 wasn't grounding properly. So to test that theory my husband put a jumper wire in and that zones all worked. Before we started digging up the yard to replace the ground wire, we decided to let it ride for a few days so we could see if it was fixed. Well, now some of our zones shut down 5-10 minutes early and others will only turn on for 2 minutes, then shut off. Does this mean we need a new timer? If so will that help the zones run properly, or do I have multiple problems? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Wet boots! How do I test for that?