>I have a 1hp Baldour single phase/thermically protected motor. Yesterday it wouldn't switch off so I yanked the plug from the socket.
I have opened the box inder the switch and don't see any immediately loose wires. I could take the connections apart to check but if I don't see anything there, any ideas?
The switch has 6 connection points but there are only 4 wires connected. The other two wires are just twisted off in an electrical cap.
Thanks. If this is a big expense I will have to get a new motor.
>If you have a volt-ohm meter, you can check the switch (with the motor unplugged of course) to see if flipping the switch off gives you an "infinite" reading. It could be that your switch has gotten some crud in it and is not working properly. If it is your switch, they are usually easily replaced.
>OK..so, since I don't have one of those meters, what if I take the wires of the swtch and just replace it? Do the wires have to go to a particular connector? I don't see anything that would indicate they are in specific places.....but there is a plaque on the motor housing that has a couple of wiring diagrammes, one under 'single phase' and one under 'thermically protected'......and I don't understand the letters that are next to each connector on the diagramme. If this is significant I could take a pic tonight and try and post it.
Or maybe it would just be easier for me to heft it out to a repair shop????
>If the motor runs you can eleminate that as the problem. The problem will be the switch. Replace it with the same switch and you should have no problems.
>TD is right. If the motor would not run it might be the motor or the switch or the wires or something else, but since the motor runs, it's OK and so is the wiring and the plug and the breaker and all the other parts, except the switch. If you take the switch out, either draw a careful picture of how it's wired or use a digital camera and take a picture, or do both, easy to get confused later. Try to buy an exact replacement switch. Read the amps off the motor and figure out whether it is 120 or 240. (120 has a pair of wires connected to the switch and makes or breaks a single connection, called Single Pole Single Throw or spst. 240 has two pairs of wires and makes and breaks the connection between them, called Double Pole Single Throw or dpst, unless it is also the reversing switch and there are six wires, called double pole double throw, or dpdt.
The good news it's not the motor and most probably the switch has arced and welded the contacts and won't turn off. Infinitely easier and cheaper to fix than the motor. You might want to buy a somewhat heavier (more amps) switch if you can it will physically fit in the space. An electrical supply house should have them and even Lowes had some that were useful.
Just fyi, not EVER machine that runs on 240, as you stated, has both hot legs run through the switch. Only one leg has to go through the switch to turn on and off the machine and some are wired that way.
Point to this is, if you go inside of a 240 machine make sure how it is wired and don't assume. Of course you should have power killed somewhere else, circuit breaker etc., unplugged other than the switch if inside it.
