Help needed for capacitors on old GE motor

M

Mike8623

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I'm trying to get a old GE Tri/clad motor going. I think all I need are the Start/run capacitors and a on/off switch. The motor is:

GE Tri/Clad
Model # 5KC145AL2003Y
115/230 volts
20.8/104 amps
1725 rpm
1.5hp

It appears to be wired for 230V and is missing the capacitors. It has 4 wires with clips, which I assume is where the capacitors go. Does anyone have any ideas on what capacitors I should be looking for? The 4 wires that have the clips on them are numbers 9,10,5 and no number on the 4th one. Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.
 
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What I would do is look on the Grizzly website for a lathe or mill with a 1.5 horsepower motor and get the capacitor values for it from the manual
Of course it will be an educated guess but unless someone has a better idea? As to which is the start cap and which is the run you may have to open the motor and trace the leads that come off the centrifugal start switch to determine that
Mark
ps the start cap is usually somewhere around 150- 350 uF (microfarad),
the run cap usually less than 80 or so for a motor that size
 
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Well it just so happens I was sitting in front of my G0709, but it is a 2hp. I got the manual out and it states:

Start capacitor: 150M 250V 1 3/8 x 2 3/4
Run capacitor: 20M 400V 1 5/8 x 2 3/4

Do you think those would be alright to use?
 
Those would be fine to try, and really, the values are not all that critical- you could be off by 30% on the values and the motor would still run fairly well
If the start capacitor is too small the motor will just start more sluggishly. The run cap value will have an impact on the horsepower and efficiency, but it too isn't all that critical
 
Older motors tend to use slightly larger cap values for a given HP rating, I've found
 
OK guys I did a little more looking and found a 1.5hp grizzly motor that gave the specs for the capacitors.

start: 400mfd 125v 1 3/4x3 3/8
run : 25mfd 250V 1 3/8x2 3/8

Then found some on ebay. so looks like I'm fixed up. You know I was looking for hours online and didn't come up with much.....but you guys helped me out with an idea I hadn't even thought of.....so thanks to all of you.........you made my day.
 
One thing I neglected to mention: the voltage ratings of the caps should be as high as possible consistent with getting them to fit in the spaces provided-
sometimes you have to make a compromise here, but 125 volts is getting on the ragged edge as far as reliability- I would shoot for at least 250 volts ac for both if possible.
For dual-voltage motors wired for 240v the start cap usually only sees 120v because of the way the windings are arranged inside, but higher voltage caps are preferred for long life, the tradeoff is size
M
 
OK Mark I found on ebay the following capacitors

start: 400mfd 250V
run: 25mfd 450F

So I think I'll go with those.

On wiring I saw a wiring diagram for 230v on another site and it went:

#1 power in line 1
#4 power in line 2
#2 to #3
#6 to #7
#8 to #9
#5 to #10

My wires appear to be the same except for #5 and #10 which have clips on them, which I assume is for the capacitors. In addition to 5&10 I also have a clip on #9 and an unmarked wire with a clip on it.

I assume wires 1&4 go to the start switch but I'm wondering how to connect wires 5,9,10 and the unmarked wire to the capacitors...in what order or just which wires go to which capacitor. Can you give any insight here.
 
The easy way is to take it to a local motor shop, have them look at it, and then take home the caps they sell you.
 
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Since we are assuming things I'm going to assume that GE does things in a mostly logical fashion so 9 and 10 probably go to one of the caps and 5 and the unmarked wire with clip go to the other one. But as I mentioned in post #2 you need to open the motor and find which of those 4 wires comes from the internal centrifugal start switch, otherwise you'll have to guess at which cap goes where- coin toss, and one of the caps may fail suddenly (burst) if you guess wrong
Mark
 
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