Newbie would appreciate some help TS'ing compressor

[Newberry]

Hello all, very happy to find a forum where I may be able to get some help troubleshooting my 6 year old Miller heat pump. I know nothing about any of this, so I'm all ears!

The compressor quit about 2 weeks ago and I've been trying to learn about troubleshooting in hopes of fixing it.
I can push the switch on the unit and the fan will start, but not the compressor. Amps going to the compressor jump to 120 for a few seconds as it tries to start. I checked the leads on the side of the compressor for grounding to the frame, and found none. The capacitor has three prongs, herm, common, and ground. Its a 55mf cap and reads 53.4mf across the herm to common and 4.9 across the fan to common.
My scroll compressor is of course warranted for 5 years so I'm hoping it could be something other than a new compressor needed. I'm just not sure how to check this start cap, or if a bad cap would cause the amps to go up like that.
All help greatly apprecated, Thanks!
Wayne

[Ed Imeduc]

With out the right tool its hard . Yes the amps can go up with no cap there.Could take the cap down to and electric shop see if they would test it for you. Does it look alright.You checked for the compressor to ground but what did you get when you Ohm it out from winding to winding. Does it try to start or pop the breaker right away.
This is why we carry a Annie on the trucks. Like lots of times you can use a big starting cap like 300 Mfd to see if you can kick it to start it. If it is the compressor you cant work on it if your not EPA to work with the freon.

ED ;)

[hvac4u]

is the cap swollen of misshapen? go get one, borrow a friends off his unit if you can and try it out. could very well be a cap, 20 to 30 bucks

[Newberry]

Thanks very much for the replies guys. I had a friend who knows a lot more about this stuff than I test some things and he said the windings on the compressor motor test good, something about two readings adding up to the third?
Ed, it does try to start, about 5 seconds after pushing the contact on the unit. It doesn't kick any breakers though, just goes to around 120 amps for 2-3 seconds and evidently something in the compressor itself kicks the power off.

I took the cap down to the trade school where I work and had the electricity class check it. They have a very old machine, looks like it used tubes! They checked it and it read 47mf (supposed to be 55).
My friend is coming by when he gets a chance with a "hard start" kit to see if that kicks the compressor on. I sure hope its the cap.
The cap doesn't look bad except for some surface rust, but I didn't get an arc when I grounded the pins to the case, and between each other.
$30 sure sounds a lot better than $400 for a new compressor plus labor to install!
Thanks again for sharing your knowledge Ed and hvac4u!