I brought home this French motor. It is nice in many ways -- quiet, TEFC, explosion proof, and has a nice gear reducer that makes it spin at about 112 RPM. One horsepower, 115 volts single phase. It runs. The enclosure is aluminum, not steel.
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I wanted to use it for meat grinding, however, I have a problem which is that this motor rotates CW, whereas for a straight connection to a meat grinder it would need to be CCW.
I opened up the case and saw a lot of wires going to the capacitor[s].
Based on my experience with other motors, I hope that swapping some wires could reverse its rotation.
On pictures, wires are coming to the inside of the motor from the right. The green incoming wire is ground, the blue and brown wires are for carrying power to the motor.
In principle yes. However which wires to switch its not possible to see from the picture. The basic information goeslike this.
you have run windings , 2 wires
you have start windings, also 2 wires
you have a capacitor
and finally a centrifugal switch. What happensis whenyou swith on the current goes through the start windings as well as the run windings, when up to speed the centrigugal switch cutsout the start windings . thecapacitor helpes to kick the start windings out of phase with the run windings .Its which way the phase is kicked determines the dir of rotation all the wires are connected up on a small terminal board. to reverse the direction of running you have to change over the start windings connections. I know how to do this on UK based motors of this type. the 4 connections are numbered A1 and A2 and Z1 and Z2. You will need to measure the ohms resistance of the 2 windings to find out which is the run and start . The start has a higher resistance. Obviosly you need to be very careful what you disconnect so that if you get it wrong you can go back and try another connection setup. label carefully and do a accurate drawing of the original setup Hope this helps.
The solid green wire is perhaps an *internal* ground wire, and the yellow with green stripe is the ground from the outside? I don't see where the solid green is connected.
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Actually -- it *looks* as though he has *two* capacitors sharing a single case -- unless it is one of those capacitors with double male quick-disconnect tabs on each terminal, and after the crimp terminals have been connected to it, the end of the capacitor has been poured full of yellow wax or epoxy of some sort. (Hopefully wax, so the terminals can be pulled free if the capacitor fails.) The only way to be sure is to measure the resistance between the two white wires, and the resistance between the two red wires -- with a low range ohmmeter. It looks as though you can reach in and make contact inside the sleeve with a skinny enough probe tip.
If it is a single capacitor, with two wires per terminal, then the reversibility is more likely.
It looks as though there are four wires coming in through the upper wall of the wiring pit -- one red, one white, one light blue, and one green. Hmm ... also a black one as well.
Did you check on the underside of the cover with the data plate? Sometimes wiring for reversing and for voltage changes (not listed as possible in this label) are found on the underside of the cover, either stamped on there directly, or a paper label glued on.
Is there an arrow cast into the gear housing showing direction of rotation? If so, it is probably designed for load only in that one direction, and then the motor might not be set up to be reversible.
Maybe -- or maybe there is a current relay in the black housing. It looks as though there is a cylindrical projection which could be a coil. If so, *that* will open the power to the starting winding when the current in the run winding drops below a certain level. I've seen this one before in special purpose motors, such as ones on small Gast rotary vane pumps.
So -- we need more information about what is in that wiring pit. The photos are good, but the black wire(s) and the black housing of what I think is the current relay make that not quite good enough. Drawings and measurement of resistance between different disconnected wires would help -- including the measurements to verify whether the capacitor is a two-terminal or a four-terminal device. Is the tapioca pudding colored stuff in the end of the capacitor hard or soft?
the only thing I can add to the above is, if its a 2 capacitor motor, then it will be capacitor assisted start and capacitor run. this does increase the power output .
The wire with green stripe coming from outside, IS ground. The pale solid green wire inside is NOT connectd to ground, if I can trust my hasty measurements yesterday.
Based on my reading of
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is a capacitor start/capacitor run motor, and can be reversed.
I did, there is no diagram.
Don, I will check it more tonight when I get home. Thanks.
yes, it's reversible - just change the phase of the start winding - doing that may be easier said than done, but if you bug out the wires, you can do it
The web page that I posted earlier, suggests that this is a capacitor start, capacitor run motor, and can be reversed by swapping wires leading to the other, non-capacitor-assisted winding. I just have to find them, I am somewhat confused by the solid green wire. I think that it is straightforward, I just have to eliminate all wires going to another winding.
OK, I think that I understand better why there are so many wires going to the black cylinder that you see in the motor's electrical well on the right. The black cylinder is a solenoid relay, so it has wires powering the solenoid, as well as wires that it switches, coming into it. I think that things are a lot clearer to me now.
A cap-start cap-run motor need not have a start winding or start switch, and I would expect that an explosion-proof motor would not have a switch capable of making sparks.
It will have two windings. One is connected across the line, while the other has the cap in series with it and the line. One side of the cap run winding will be tied to one line or the other, the other side to the cap. The other side of the cap will go to the other line. To reverse the rotation, reverse the leads of either winding.
Don, I think that this motor does have a start switch (the black cylinder to the right). Otherwise, I will do as you say, reverse leads going to the winding without caps, will try to do so tonight.
Don, you are describing a permanent split capacitor (PSC) motor.
A capacitor start, capacitor run motor will have two capacitors and a normally closed start switch. During startup the capacitors are in parallel. The start switch opens when the motor is up to speed removing the start capacitor from the circuit.
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