Dust collector quit

[Tom Wilson66]

Went to use my dust collector tonight, and the motor doesn't spin. It just sits there and hums. Took off the intake hose, gave the impeller a spin, then turned it on and it runs like a scared rat. It is several years old, but doesn't get used more than an couple of hours a week (don't have a lot of woodworking time). The motor is being run on 120V, and has 9 amp draw. Anyone know if this is fixable, or do I need a new dust collector motor?

[jerry nazard]

Could be a bad capacitor or the centrifugal switch is out of adjustment / dirty. If you can spin the motor, turn on power, and have it come up to speed, it probably is a bad cap. Just my $00.02.....

[Dan Friedrichs]

Certainly fixable. Single phase motors like this usually use a centrifugal switch and a capacitor to get the rotor spinning in one direction when it starts up. Really, your motor is just a centrifugal switch, a capacitor, and a lot of coiled wire and metal. One of those 3 things has a problem, and it's not the wire and metal :)

Dust the whole motor off (especially inside) with compressed air, and see if that helps. If not, start taking shields off the motor until you find the centrifugal switch, and dust it off well and clean with rubbing alcohol. That will almost certainly fix your problem.

[Glenn Roberts]

It is also remotely possible that your starting winding is burnt out? (or problem with start winding) Also the cent. switch 'could' be built within the motor (depending upon design) and be difficult to access. (without pulling motor end cases off)

[David Hostetler]

This is a common problem with these motors. The centrifugal switch / cap is most likely gone bad... See this a lot on HF DCs... Other brands do it too...

[Chris Padilla]

http://dnr.louisiana.gov/sec/execdiv/techasmt/ecep/hvac/d/d.htm might be of educational interest. I just posted this in the "Run vs Start Capacitor" thread.

[Kerry Verne]

When my Delta died, the cap looked like this. A correct replacement from Grainger cost me about $12.

[Tom Wilson66]

You all were right, the capacitor was shot. The top looked like it had melted and bulged out. Will try to get another one to replace it, and should be all right. Many thanks for the help.