Neighbor has a 12 year old Trane Central Air. Outdoor unit fan wont spin without push. After assist, it operates normally. Any Ideas?

 

Sounds like it may have a bad capacitor. If you have an ohm meter, turn of power to the condenser. Remove wires from capacitor. With ohm meter touch each post with a lead. If meter goes up and stays, the cap is shorted. If it doesn't move it's open. The meter should jump slightly and then fall. With a small cap like the fan motor cap, look close, because its just going to move barely anyway if its good. If you have a cap that operates both compressor and fan motor, it will have 3 prongs. Test the c terminal and fan(f). Also after each test you have to alternate leads on the terminals.ie if you have black and red leads and first test black is on c and red is on f, then for second test you have to put black on f and red on c.

 

The capacitor was the culprit. fixed. Thanks!