Air Conditioning - Capacitor Help

I know the capacitor boosts the power at start up but does it play any role during the cycle of the system being on?

There are two types of capacitors, 'start', and 'run'. A start capacitor generally plays no role after the unit started, however, if the current drops for any reason, the start capacitor may kick in momentarily.

A 'run' capacitor is energized the entire time the unit is running.

Thanks. If my outside unit runs and shuts off prior to reaching desired temp, could this be from the "run" capacitor?

Not probable. Most likely a number of other reasons are causing the problem. You can change out a cap without much expense and labor to be on the safe side.

How do I discharge the old cap? Also, I had the start cap replaced about a month ago when nothing would run on the outside unit. How can I find out the value of the cap that is supposed to be used - I have a feeling the guy just put one in that he had on the truck.

Is it the fan motor shutting off or the whole unit or what??

Both were shutting off, then when I jumped the HPS just the fan shut off.

If you follow the wires from your fan a couple of them should lead to the capacitor that serves it. Can you host a picture of the wireing compartment? I think it's either the fans capacitor of fan motor and capacitor is what you need.

Do you have a volt meter?

I have a voltmeter. It's a small one typically used for measuring V & I on circuit boards - I'm a little hesitant to probe around as I don't want to get zapped. I did probe where the thermostat comes in and there is 24V there - I probed it when the outside unit had shut off completely and the inside blower was still running. There appears to be two caps inside the unit, one that says start up cap and the other I guess is the run cap. I'm assuming these hold quite the charge given their sizes. I don't have a high impedance resistor to bleed the charge to ground.
There is also something marked as a CLO (compressor lock out circuit - which I'm assuming is temperature sensitive? I don't know what to not touch so I'm afraid of touching anything right now - Just not sure how much impedence my voltmeter has and I don't want my body being the path of least resistance :)

I also don't know what the "contactor" is nor where it is - but I'm assuming I need to probe there and see what's up.

I washed down the coils because I thought it might need more air flow and I removed the HPS jumper - when I turned it on again it cranked up but smelled like electrical burn - I wasn't sure if that was from the coils drying off but it scared me and I shut it off.

Anyway, I'll take a pic of the spec inside the door and try and upload it. I'll post again when it is there.

Thanks so much for your help - hopefully I'll have the thing solved before the guy comes out late next week (first appt they had). Otherwise I'll just continue to roast and ponder what could be wrong. :confused: