D.McDonnel "Mac"
10-25-2004, 10:44 AM
I need some help from you motor savy members. I came home last night from being gone for 4 days and the furnace blower fan was not running nor would it start. Because I live in an older house we leave the fan on all the time to keep the house temps a little more even. I did not turn it off when we left, I just lowered the temp setting. Unless the electricity went off while we were gone (no evidence as no clocks were blinking) the fan stopped while running.
Current symptoms:
- fan freewheels and coasts nicely with the power off of it. I recently (2 months ago) removed the fan assy, cleaned and lubricated it after an incident where the fan wouldn't start. The motor needed lubed and I cleaned everything while it was out. Function returned to normal after that incident.
- As fan is freewheeling in the proper direction if I kick the power on (using safety interupt switch as I done many times in the past) the motor/fan stops and is very hard to turn as if it is held in place magnetically. To me this eliminates the start capacitor as a possible culprit and points to a bad motor.
I am going to work on it this evening. Is there a way to check the start capacitor to be sure? Any other motor checks I can make? I guess I should pick up both on the way home and try the capacitor first. I really don't want to call the HVAC repairman in on this if I can avoid it.
Thanks in advance
Mac
Current symptoms:
- fan freewheels and coasts nicely with the power off of it. I recently (2 months ago) removed the fan assy, cleaned and lubricated it after an incident where the fan wouldn't start. The motor needed lubed and I cleaned everything while it was out. Function returned to normal after that incident.
- As fan is freewheeling in the proper direction if I kick the power on (using safety interupt switch as I done many times in the past) the motor/fan stops and is very hard to turn as if it is held in place magnetically. To me this eliminates the start capacitor as a possible culprit and points to a bad motor.
I am going to work on it this evening. Is there a way to check the start capacitor to be sure? Any other motor checks I can make? I guess I should pick up both on the way home and try the capacitor first. I really don't want to call the HVAC repairman in on this if I can avoid it.
Thanks in advance
Mac