[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

Maybe it hums because it doesn't know the words?

[whitecree]

Well, the color scheme is pretty much however I want it. I bought a new 3 prong plug just for the occasion. So dark green I made do for what would have been either red or blue normally, black to black, and the light green I wired to the ground plug.

I guess there could be some sort of centrifical switch inside, but if there is then I'm up the creek as the motor housing is welded.

Originally Posted by Hi_Ho_Sliver

Maybe it hums because it doesn't know the words?

Smarty.

[DICK "chipncut" CAIN]

[quote=whitecree]
I guess there could be some sort of centrifical switch inside, but if there is then I'm up the creek as the motor housing is welded"]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As long as you're up the creek. It would make an ideal boat anchor.
Dick

[AlArchie]

When you had that motor wired, and it just hummed, could you spin the shaft by hand and then did it run? Try that. It won't help you with the wiring but it will give you an idea of what the problem is.

If it starts and runs after you manually spin the shaft, the motor is missing the starter capacitor, and most likely does not have an internal centrifical switch.

What a starter capacitor does is build up a DC charge and fire that into the primary windings. Once the motor is running, the internal centrifical switch opens and disconnects the capacitor circuit. If it didn't the capacitor would continue fring a DC charge in there and you'd have some severe vibration induced in the rotating armature.

You'll probably have to scrounge through that drier chasis and find the starter capacitor. There should also be an external switch in conjunction with the capacitor that will shut the capacitor down once the initial DC shot is fired.

You can dispense with the external switch if you want and replace it with a momentary SPST switch. You will still have to wire the capacitor in the circuit, but put the SPST switch in line with the capacitor's hot side. Wire an on/off switch into the power supply like normal. Turn on the powere switch, and the motor will sit there and hum. Immediately hit the momentary spst switch and the motor should start and run normally. Make sure the motor turns the direction you want. If it doesn't reverse the leads from the capacitor to the motor.

That's how I had to jerry-rig the salvaged food processor motor I used on my power strop.

It was a pain in the keester to figure out, but it works fine. If you can find and figure out that electronic capacitor switch, you can use that inplace of the momentary SPST switch.

Al

[decoycarve]

It sounds like what you have is a split-phase squirrel cage motor. There are four kinds of split phase motors.
Resistance Start
Capacitor start
Capacitor start capacitor run(usually for larger motors)
Repulsion Start.

It Sounds like you have a may have a repulsion start. There is a centrifical switch inside that opens when the motor gets up to speed. The hum you heard is the motor trying to start on the wrong winding. If I am guessing right about the type of motor you have, the books show the blue and orange should be hooked to one wire of your cord and the balck wire to the other. The wire that you hooked to the ground prong of the plug should go to the frame of the motor. Without being able to hook an ohm meter up and read out the windings I can't gaurantee this will work. But hey better than that boat anchor.
Goody

[woodtrapper]

check your yellow pages because their are a lot of compananys that rewind or take care of maintaince of different motors.

[whitecree]

Originally Posted by DICK "chipncut" CAIN

As long as you're up the creek. It would make an ideal boat anchor.
Dick

Another smarty!

When I saw Decoycarve's advice, at first I thought he was being cheeky. "Squirrel cage" motor?

Too late to look for a starter capacitor in the carcass of the dryer, it is long gone to the dump. I'm thinking now I should have kept the wiring harness. I know there were more than 3 wires leading up to the motor housing, but being a know-it-all from way back, figured all you need are 3 wires, right?

Once the moor starts to hum, turning the shaft manually doesn't do much. I'll try bolting a cloth wheel on, then giving it a flick manually and see what happens.