South bend 18 motor issues

[holt2ton]

Hi all,
I have a SB 18 with a 110/220 single phase motor.
I have had this lathe for 5+years wired to 220 single phase.
Use it all the time. Now....every other or so time when I shut the switch off I get some popping and blue sparks out the bottom of the motor. I can turn it on no problem, starts right up. Turn the drum switch off and pop pop pop....
On a side note if I turn the drum switch to reverse it will pop the breaker after about 10seconds.
I need some help!!!

 

[matt_i]

Are you breaking both hot and neutral legs of the 240vac at the drum switch? If you are breaking just a single pole (the neutral) it could be arcing hot to ground.

Also there's likely a start capacitor in the motor base and a centrifugal switch inside one of the end bells that makes it turn on and off. This could be having some issues.

 

[holt2ton]

I’ll look into those things. Thanks