Capacitor physically too large to fit in cover

[Bob Vavricka]

I have this situation on two different motors where I can find the right size (voltage and microfarad) capacitor, but it's too large to fit under the cover on the motor. One of them is a Grizzly jointer motor and I ordered the capacitor from Grizzly and it is a larger diameter than the original. What are my options?

[Doug Garson]

I had the same problem when I replaced the capacitor on my dust collector, I just mounted it externally and shielded the contacts with a section of scrap plastic pipe. Not elegant but no problem after several years in service.
DC CAP.jpg

[Bill Dufour]

It is only 120 or 240 volts so not high voltage.
Bill D

[Alex Zeller]

If you wanted to be a little more neat you could just connect extension wires under the metal cover for the cap and run them to an electrical box mounted close by on the tool with the cap inside it. Or you could try to order a new cover from Grizzly. Chances are the brand of the cap changed and now it's slightly larger so the company that made the motor just started making the covers larger too. If there's any companies that fix motors you could ask them if they have a larger spare cover around. Possibly someone here has a motor that the smoke was let out of and just hasn't found it's way to the dump yet has one.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Measure old cap, then hit Ebay and Amazon. One, or both should have what you need. I ran into this on my DeVillbiss generator. It uses a 35 uf, 50mm X 80 mm cap. Also did my AP-400 with a remote cap, as nothing would fit except a WAY OVER PRICED one from Delta. I'm not paying $40 + shipping for a five dollar cap.

[Mike Henderson]

I had the same problem when I replaced the capacitor on my dust collector, I just mounted it externally and shielded the contacts with a section of scrap plastic pipe. Not elegant but no problem after several years in service.
DC CAP.jpg

I did essentially the same thing on my DC. Several years and no problems.

Mike

[Bill Dufour]

On my table saw I used a long long hose clamp that went all around the motor to hold the cap on.
My advice is that if you are fooling around with all that wiring cut the cord off near the motor and remove the motor. Do all the wiring on the bench then install a short cord with a twist lock plug on the motor. Install a matching twist lock cord end on the machines existing cut off motor stub cord. The twist lock does not have to match anything in the shop so some oddball stuff you find cheap is plenty good.
Bill D.

[John K Jordan]

One easy fix is mount the cap in a piece of PVC pipe, cap the ends, mount creatively.