Condenser fan not working after capacitor replacement

[greasyfingers01]

My condenser fan is not working, the capacitor tested good but on the low end of the +/-5%. I could spin start the fan with the old capacitor. I replaced the capacitor and contactor given that its 20 years old. I still had the same problem. Then I replaced the fan motor, and still, the fan will not start without a push start. What else could it be? The control board? The compressor kicks on and will cool the house until the unit cycles off.

I initially had the unit looked at by an HVAC company because I did not have time to mess with it. They found the hi/low pressure reset switch was tripped. They reset it, turned it on, and ran fine. They checked the freon level and was good. Said they could not find the problem and said it could have been a fluke situation. AN hour or so after they left, and the unit cycled off, it tripped the hi/low breaker again. Thats where picked up the mulimeter and started digging... The heat pump is a Rheem RPMC-030 JAZ.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Wrench97]

Broken wire between the cap and fan motor?

 

[greasyfingers01]

Broken wire between the cap and fan motor?

Unfortunately its a new motor and wiring.

 

[The Cobbler]

wild *** guess, do you have proper voltage at the fan leads?

 

[greasyfingers01]

wild *** guess, do you have proper voltage at the fan leads?

Coming off the Cap fan and C? I haven't checked but will.

 

[The Cobbler]

I was thinking before the caps .

 

[Wrench97]

Check the voltage to the motor as stated above and did you test the new cap to make sure it was good?

 

[LXCam]

Take a look at the relay. I’ll bet the contacts are toast.

 

[greasyfingers01]

Check the voltage to the motor as stated above and did you test the new cap to make sure it was good?

Yes I tested the new cap. It's reading 41.5uF and 3.12uF

 

[greasyfingers01]

Check the voltage to the motor as stated above and did you test the new cap to make sure it was good?

The relay was working, compressor was kicking on. However, I replaced it anyway. It was 20 years old and was cheap to prevent future problems.

 

[Wrench97]

Yes I tested the new cap. It's reading 41.5uF and 3.12uF

What is the cap suppose to be 45/5?

 

[greasyfingers]

What is the cap suppose to be 45/5?

The original one was 40/3, replaced it with the same.

 

[Wrench97]

Does the replacement motor call for the same 3uf cap?

 

[greasyfingers]

Does the replacement motor call for the same 3uf cap?

Yes

 

[hungtdao]

How old is your compressor? It could be the compressor. You can trouble shoot it by turning off the circuit breaker or pull out the connector from the box to make sure no electric, then open the case and pull out the electrical wire that connected the compressor. It should have 3 wires in blue, black, yellow. Mostly in triangle shape. Use the voltmeter, set to measure the ohms resistance. The total ohms blue + yellow = total of black to blue + black to yellow. If not, your compressor has short circuit and needs to be replaced.

 

[greasyfingers01]

I got it running! The original motor was a 3 wire. The replacement motor is a universal motor with 5 wires. The instructions I had stated to terminate and cap the brown and yellow wires. After checking voltage looking at the wiring diagram again, the wires needed to be connected. I misunderstood thinking they needed to be terminated separately.

Thank you for all the help.

 

[Wrench97]

One last thing Is it spinning the correct direction?

 

[greasyfingers01]

One last thing Is it spinning the correct direction?

yes, blowing out of the condenser.