I wanted to figure this out on my own but I think I need help from the experts. I just rebuilt a 115.6962, dated 4/55. I verified it ran before I started. In fact, after initial reassembly I also verified that it ran great. But when I reinstalled the base, using Frank's "correct" orientation of the switch, I plugged it in flipped the switch and saw a spark just before my lights went out. I reset my breaker and slowly started disassembling things, checking each wire looking for a burnt mark indicating a short.
After my reassembled test run, the only thing I changed electrically was grounding the new cord to the base. Before I disassembled anything I used my multimeter to find anything going to ground and found nothing. Now that I'm down to the bare stator I've tested each of the 5 wires and still nothing to ground. I should mention here, my background is mechanical, not electrical so there's a lot I don't understand. What has me really puzzled is the fact that the red and green wires, coming off the stator and bunched with one yellow wire, show a resistance of .7 ohms when connected to the other green wire that connects to the neutral of the power cord. It seems to me that the result is a direct connection of the black power wire to the neutral wire. Is that accurate?
I have been over every square inch of this stator and all of the wires, there is no sign of a short anywhere but that spark tells me I have a wiring problem. Can anyone direct me to what I should be looking at?
Also, this motor has the simple terminal strip with only 2 posts. Each post holds one of the yellow. capacitor wires. One side also has the red from the stator, and the other has the green stator and black wire from the thermal overload switch.
I can get pictures of anything right now if that well help.