Last night I turned down the t-stat from 82 to 79F and after a bit noticed it wasn't blowing cold air. Went outside to discover the condensor fan running & blowing cool air. Not good! Too late to do anything about it. Fortunately inside is quite dry so I slept under a ceiling fan.
Today I checked the start cap with a capacitance meter: 95uF. The ESR meas. 40 mOhms. The cap is about 20yrs old now. The start kit is a Lennox LB-34803BAL. Spec'd as: 88 - 108uF @ 330VAC. So despite its age, it's within the range.
Next I Ohm'd the compressor: No open windings. Run is .8 Ohm, Start is 3.1 Ohm. That's OK. Therefore the compressor isn't Tango Uniform.
Next I have a look at the fan/cmprsr cap I replaced a few years back. Top is a bit rusty....and badly bulged! Labeled as a 40 + 5uF, but the cap meter shows 0uF. ESR meter reads infinite. It's cooked....trying to burst out of its aluminum can. Odd the cndsnr motor would run....
I'd gone to an electric motor shop hoping to get a good cap. This is a Proline PB400Z050T440CA made in Mexico in GE's old cap. plant. I'm guessing 1134 is the date code. 34th week of 2011.
I think I found why the A/C quit.....
Today I checked the start cap with a capacitance meter: 95uF. The ESR meas. 40 mOhms. The cap is about 20yrs old now. The start kit is a Lennox LB-34803BAL. Spec'd as: 88 - 108uF @ 330VAC. So despite its age, it's within the range.
Next I Ohm'd the compressor: No open windings. Run is .8 Ohm, Start is 3.1 Ohm. That's OK. Therefore the compressor isn't Tango Uniform.
Next I have a look at the fan/cmprsr cap I replaced a few years back. Top is a bit rusty....and badly bulged! Labeled as a 40 + 5uF, but the cap meter shows 0uF. ESR meter reads infinite. It's cooked....trying to burst out of its aluminum can. Odd the cndsnr motor would run....
I'd gone to an electric motor shop hoping to get a good cap. This is a Proline PB400Z050T440CA made in Mexico in GE's old cap. plant. I'm guessing 1134 is the date code. 34th week of 2011.
I think I found why the A/C quit.....