helps me troubleshoot this old GE quarter horse motor

I have this old partially sealed quarter horse General Electric motor. Made in the USA from back in the day! Runs a peach, incredible motor... I use it on a metal lathe which I have been cutting lots of mahogany on. Dust does accumulate near the motor but every day I clean up the area with a vacuum and blow compressed air through the tiny ports at the bottom.

Yesterday the motor quit starting suddenly. To be fair I have really been putting it through its paces... running 6 hours a day for the last three days.

Sometimes it moves in reverse maybe 1/20th of a turn and makes a low hum. rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Like something is stopping it. Spins freely by hand, and here's the kicker...

If you spin it up by hand and flip the switch it starts right up.

It's almost like it's not getting enough starting current.

Any ideas on how to troubleshoot this? I don't have much experience with older AC brush motors. This is a great one and I'd like to keep it going!

Does it have a starter capacitor on it? if it does, replace it.

If it doesn't have a capacitor, it probably has a set of starter windings that are energized at startup and deactivated by an internal centrifugal switch as the motor nears running RPM. Maybe that switch isn't working?

A video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ruqTOKI-Yo

I'll have to go with starter windings, or whatever controls them. If you live near a metro area of any size, there should be at least one electric motor repair shop that could fix it for sure. Not sure of the cost-benefit ratio of that vs. replacing it.

GE made motors for these?

alfadriver wrote: GE made motors for these?

Absolutely!

The contact that the centrifugal starter flapper circuit thingy rests on when at low RPMs was bent back and not making contact. Bent it forward and it goes like a scalded cat from a standstill now. Zoom!

Taiden wrote: The contact that the centrifugal starter flapper circuit thingy rests on when at low RPMs was bent back and not making contact. Bent it forward and it goes like a scalded cat from a standstill now. Zoom!

Excellent!