Help, my motor blew up....

F

Frontier Forge

Joined
Aug 25, 2002
Messages
138
A few months ago I got a KMg outfit, I didnt put alot of thought into the motor so when the kmg arrived I was in a rush for a motor so I went to HF to buy a motor and spent 60 buck on a 2 hp 3450rpm compressor duty motor,open,drip proof. I pot a nylon over it to gaurd agains dust. I wired an electric switch a 20 amp household light switch. One day after using it I noticed the switch didnt turn the motor off it just reduced the rpm. I took the motor off blew it out. I took the ground wire off and with the switch off nothing, hook the ground up,switch off motor runs,. but switch doesnt control any thing, I wired the switch in on the white wire. Whats happening? A defective switch, or a short in the motor? I know I need but can afford one now I wanted a leeson tefc 2 hp motor, or idealy a variable spped set up but I need help setting that up. Any body got an extra motor or some advise.....Im right in the middle of a commision....Thanks Bob M.
 
. I took the ground wire off and with the switch off nothing, hook the ground up,switch off motor runs,. but switch doesn't control any thing,
Click to expand...
Bob,
First off:
IF you mean the green wire (and wired: white wire connects to the neutral terminal, black connects to the hot terminal, and green connects to the ground terminal.)when you say "ground wire" you have a DANGEROUS situation with a possible "hot chassis"(input voltage potential on the case}when it is removed. It sounds like something is shorting the 120V to chassis ground. If you have your motor wired as above, then you have your switch on the neutral side(not a good idea), check to see if it or the wiring has arced/shorted to the case. If not you probably have an internal short in the motor. BE CAREFUL!
Regards,
Greg
 
the swithch is on the black leg. I traced the wires on the cord,plug,to the breaker. I noticed that ultimatley the green,or bare ground wires tie into a bus strip, and the white wires to there own bus strip and then are tied together in the breaker box, I believe now that perhaps I have a bad capacitor, no ground connected to motor it runs full speed with power on then if you touch the ground to motor chassis it bogs down like its trying to restart, then you take the ground off wait about 10 second and the motor kicks and runs at full speed. Its a chicago electric Ive heard they only have a 1 year servise life :grumpy: Looks loke i still need a motor...
 
Bob,
You might be right about your starter winding being put into the circuit when you touch the ground to it. Your capacitor sounds like it is working as it seems to be charging, causing a difference between the starter winding and the run winding. The 10 sec. wait would seem to indicate it is discharging. I would guess that the starter winding is shorting to ground. It might be the windings themselves or maybe the centrifugal switch is dirty/defective and causing the short. You might give it a look/cleaning. It could just be shorting out due to metal dust build-up in the grease.
Harbor Freight has a 90 day warranty on their motors.
Good luck,
Greg

By the way, that would only apply to what you described
above. You still need to check that switch you installed
to see if it's shorted because it should shut down the machine regardless when installed to disconnect the hot lead.
 
Bob,

Check your yellow pages for a local electric motor repair shop. They would be able to trouble shoot it in a minute and probably have parts on hand if it is repairable. If it is no good, they may also have a few used motors that you could get a deal on. ....and of course they could also sell you a new replacement.

Good Luck,
Rob
 
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