I have a 9 year old Bryant compressor fan motor (3 wires) in which the bearings went bad. The capacitor had 3 connection poits on it.

I purchased a new fan motor; it has 4 wires. New capacitor has 2 connection points on it.

I need some advice on how to hook up the wires and capacitor on the new ones.

DETAILS:

compressor: Bryant model 661CJ030-A

old fan motor: GE HC39GE237A with brown-black-yellow wires

new fan motor: AO Smith FSE1026SV1 with brown-black-yellow-brown/white wires

old capacitor: factory installed with 3 connection points

new capacitor: Dayton 2GE74 with 2 connection points

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. It's very muggy these days in northern Virginia.

Thanks.

 

Were there connections on all three of the original cap?

If so, then you will need a cap for the compressor. The original cap was for the compressor and the fan. The new one is just for the fan. Three terminal caps are dual rated and ususally used for two motors. Sometimes the second side is not used but in an OE situation, I suspect that both sides of the cap were used.

 

The original capacitor has the lugs labeled (reall small and hard to see the letters)
O
FAN
HERM

The old fan yellow was connected to the O along with 2 other yellows.
The old fan brown was connected to FAN by itself.
Two pale blue wires are connected to the HERM.
The old fan black was connected to a small circuit board near the top of the unit.

So, as I understand you, the new capacitor is just for starting. Can I use it temporarily in conjunction with the old capacitor till I can order a 3 lug model - jumper wires?

If I can, then what do I do with the brown/white wire?

Thank you for your help.

 

Go to this page and click on "outline drawing". It will show the correct wiring hook up for your new motor.

http://www.aosmithmotors.com/concert...html?navApp=a1

I cannot find anything online pertaining to your current unit.

Is the old motor a 240 volt motor? It appears the AO Smith unit is.

 

Brown wores on the cap. Other two on each leg of the contacter.

 

Hello Nap,

The old motor is 208-230V.

I hooked the new motor up per the link you sent me and everyrthing works fine now.

Thank you vey much for your help.

gscottm

 

good deal,

or as a freind of mine says, "cool beans"

 

krankyoleman,

Sorry I didn't see your post till right now. I did exactly what you said. Thank you too.

 

...I did this last night with the help of my apprentice electrician friend and his HVAC technician uncle's help over the phone last night. My friend was there doing the work.

I had these wires coming out of the motor: white, black, brown, and brown with white stripe. We connected the two brown wires across the capacitor. We also connected the blue compressor wire and a red wire from the contactor to the two different poles of the same capacitor. So, one capacitor pole had a brown from the motor and a blue from the compressor connected to it and the other pole had a brown with white stripe and red from the contactor connected to it. I didn't agree with it, but I'm not an electrician or an HVAC tech. I'm an industrial engineer with only one college class in circuits.

My apprentice buddy closed the contacts to test and we heard the motor making a weird rattling noise while running. He switched the polarity on the browns connected to the capacitor and the noise went away. It appeared to be cycling the capacitor.

So to be clear, if I just connect the two browns from the motor to the capacitor, I won't need any additional power coming in to the capacitor at all? We took the old 3 pole capacitor out and set it aside. It looks like I need to re-install it to run the compressor and just use the new one to run the fan.

 

Installed the new run capacitor the same as said and works great! Thank You!

 

I got a new motor they gave me a capacitor but it only has 2 places to put the wires plus there is no markings like the old capacitor. Trying to get the fan working before it gets really hot.

Thanks

Chris

 

The existing dual capacitor must be left installed to serve the compressor.
Connect the 2 brown wires from the new motor to the new capacitor.
The bottom diagram may help...
Color codes vary.

 

Thanks one last question the old motor just plugs into the system I guessing I need to cut and chase the wires back.

Thanks
Chris

 

Yes, if the old motor was not an ECM motor you can do that.

 

The old fan motor has red black and brown the new motor has brown, brown with a white stripe black and purple
So the two browns go to the new capacitor
Black to black
So I am guessing purple to red


ECM motor?

The only reason I doing this we has 2 ac guys out the first guy wanted 750 to do the job the second guy wanted 690 to do the job. Is that a fair price to replace the fan motor?

Thanks

Chris

 

Your wiring looks good.
You do not have an ecm motor.
My company isn't cheap either.
It is almost always cheaper to do it yourself if you can.

 

Thanks for all your help the hardest thing was find a new home for the second capacitor and getting it locked down. It's been running for little over an hour and it's pumping out cold air.

Thanks once again.

 

Last question is there a place I can found out if the fan should spin counter clock wise or clock wise.

Thanks
Chris

 

Put your hand over the fan, you still feel warm air. If you feel warm air out of the side, it is backwards.

 

You can look at the fan blade and tell if it is clockwise or counter clockwise.
The blades should discharge the air from the top of the condenser.

If in doubt just try the factory setting and feel the discharge air as skaggsje has posted.

If the fan blade is to low into the unit it can also discharge air from the sides.
This is especially true with a 2 ton 10 seer unit.
Many universal motors are longer than OEM motors. This can result in some air discharging from the sides of the condenser. I sometimes cut back bolts on universal motors if it will get the fan blade an inch closer to the top of the condenser.

I am a big fan of OEM motors but they can be two or three times more expensive than a universal.

 

Great info, especially the diagram provided by Houston204. Thanks!

One more question.

Why not just wire the new motor to the original dual capacitor just like the OEM motor? In other words, why add on a separate run capacitor for the fan?

If wiring the new motor (4 wire) to the original (or new) dual run capacitor would you just cap off one brown wire?


Thanks!

 

4 wire motor's have to have a seperate cap. Both brown and brown/white wire's need to be connected.

 

Thanks for the reply Skaggsje.

Why are all the replacement motors 4 wire? Even the OEM replacement motor comes with a run capacitor.

The OEM motor is 830 RPM but all the aftermarket ones seem to be 825 RPM. My understanding is that you should match the RPM to the original. Is that difference negligible?

Thanks!

 

OK, Now I'm confused.

I zoomed in on the OEM replacement motor's photo and its diagram is exactly like the one on the original motor-3 wires (black, brown and purple).

So why would it come with a separate run capacitor?
Why not wire it like it is now and like it's shown in Houston204's Dual Cap diagram?

Thanks.

 

An OEM type replacement wouldn't normally come with a capacitor.
Since it is an OEM type replacement..... just wire it like the original one.

Put the cap in the spare parts drawer.

With some four wire replacements..... the white/brown is same as one of the power wires. You need to follow the directions that come with a four wire replacement motor. The brown is always used.

 

Thanks for the reply, PJMax.

I found an OEM without the run capacitor for a lower price.
It'll be easier to install w/o the additional run cap.

Now we'll just hope it gets here before the current motor's bearings go completely!

Thanks for the help!

 

You're very welcome.

Now I'm afraid it's time to send this thread back to our searchable archives.

If you have a question that is not answered here - please feel free to start a new thread.