Old Westinghouse motor info needed

[oldmachinenut]

Do any of you know were I could find info on an old Westinghouse 5 hp, single phase capacitor start/capacitor run motor? The motor housing is cast iron, weighs over 100# with an 1 1/8" shaft. I need capacitor values for it, the run caps look original but the start caps have been replaced and I am not sure they are the correct mfd. value. The paper in the capacitor bix is disintegrated and my local motor shop said the have no info available. They said it was built in the early 60's, the serial number starts with a 65 so that makes sense. It was taken off a compressor because it just hummed due to a blown start cap. I want to use this on my Quincy 325 project. I know these old motors were built better than the new ones, the old guy at the motor shop said it was "a hell of a motor" and well worth fixing. Any help you guys could offer would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Bill

 

[Dagny]

Are they in the base? Is the start winding taken off the mid point of the run windings. How many capacitors are there? I have been involved in many of these . Once you know what voltage they are you can experiment with the microfarads. start about 250 mfd. see how well it starts under load. if it hesitates add 50 more keep doing it till it starts right up. you will know when you are very close. It helps if you have 2 14 gal rubbermaid tubs full of capacitors. Someone at the motor shop should have been through this before.

 

[Bert_]

^ 250mfd seems like a good place to start for the start cap. The start cap value isn't very critical as long as it starts with a load. Not sure if you have a value for the run cap but i would guess a 20mfd would be close.

 

[lowpro64]

I just spent 2 days looking for a motor for a customer. These folks may be able to point you in the right direction.
Zim

Western Motors Service Co.
Phone: 800-810-0401

 

[6PTsocket]

Thank You for the reply,
The caps are in a 10"x10" box on the side of the motor. There are 4 Sprague 15-440ac run caps that look original and 4 Vanguard 324-389mfd 110-125vac start caps that do not look original, they are still in their boxes connected to the harness. I was not sure why the starts were 110-125vac I have not looked close enough at the harness to see if the starts are wired series or parallel.
The motor tag says;
Westinghouse Life Line
Model, AMDP
Frame,215
230 volt single phase
19.8 amps
S#65A3203G12
Serial#6512
1710 rpm
5hp

Wiring caps in parallel gives you the sum of the capacitors 30mfd +50mfd = 80 mfd.) The working voltage does not chage. Wiring caps of the same voltage rating in series doubles the voltage rating but if the caps are the same value, it halves it ( 2 50mfd/ 125 volt caps in series are 25mfd /250 volts. HOWEVER, sometimes the start winding, cap(s) and centrifugal switch are wired across only one of two series connected run windings so the caps may only need to be 125 volt and in parallel. This is common in 120/240 motors. That 5 hp beast was obviously not made to run on 120.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[pancho400cid]

Sounds like you have already fixed it.... good on ya!

TECO bought the larger motor portion of Westinghouse.

The smaller motor stuff was bought by Homewood Products. I don't know if they could help on something as small as a capacitor for a 5 HP motor though.

http://www.homewoodsales.com/products-motor.php

 

[datadavid]

Do they still construct nuclear reactor cores? Been inside a few 50 y.o core containments in our swedish reactors. I wonder how they shipped those things here..

 

[pancho400cid]

Thanks!
That is the most information I have seen yet on the old Westinghouse motors.
Bill

You are welcome.

Do they still construct nuclear reactor cores? Been inside a few 50 y.o core containments in our swedish reactors. I wonder how they shipped those things here..

The nuclear stuff stayed under the "Westinghouse Nuclear" umbrella and was not sold off I "think".... not really sure though.