Air Conditioning - Handler blower fan won't run

Outside compressor goes on, air handler motor just hums. So I did some research and basic troubleshooting.

I removed the access panel for the blower motor. I can spin the fan freely by hand and it spins for a while after I let go and I don't hear any bad noises. I flip the breaker, and see it try to start to spin but it stops and now it's just humming. I try to give it a 'boost' by hand. It's now hard to move and I have to put more into it to give it a boost. A couple of times it starts to spin up but then comes back to a stop. Finally once, she started spinning all the way but it sounded bad like it was fighting to get there. The capacitor 'looks' good but I guess I will just replace it anyways.

I've read of people mentioning that if it spins up after giving it a helping hand that it's usually the capacitor. Is it normal for it to get hard to spin by hand after the power's been turned back on? It was actually hard trying to give it a hand.

thanks
pat

" I've read of people mentioning that if it spins up after giving it a helping hand that it's usually the capacitor."
YES.

"Is it normal for it to get hard to spin by hand after the power's been turned back on? It was actually hard trying to give it a hand. "
If the bearing are bad the rotor will get pulled to one side and stop.


I would say that the bearing in the motor are bad.
turn off the power and move shaft up an down side ways.
more then likely you feel something hitting in one spot.

Or you may something in the motor.

Thanks. It's hard finding a place that will sell me a capacitor! I finally found a small shop, took the capacitor off, and he tested it (using some light bulb setup), but it's good.

This morning, if I flip the breaker, it starts to spin up and then everything shuts off. It doesn't even hum anymore. I can't feel anything wrong with the motor by hand. Fan spins freely. No up down off axis movement. Just a tiny bit of in out but it still spins freely so I don't think it's the bearings. The guy at the shop said it should still have been easy to give it a boost by hand with the power on instead of feeling like you were fighting it to get it spinning. He thinks I have a bad bushing.

So in looking at the motor assembly, it looked easy enough to work on. Unplug motor wire connector, remove two screws and slide whole assembly out. Once I had it all out, it was easy enough to get the motor off. Took it to a grainger and they sold me (what I hope is) an equivalent motor. It had extra wires for med-high and med-low that I just capped. The motor was a little deeper than the old one. I went ahead and got a new capacitor ($5 !) . I put it all back together and the air is flowing again! yeah!

Also, while I had it all apart, I cleaned the fan blades. I couldn't believe the junk that was caked onto them. Is it normal to see wierd stuff on some of the stuf in there? Mostly it's clean, but in a few places like on the wires to the fan motor there was stuff that looked like some type of growth.

Probably the only thing that concerns me is the metal tabs that the whole assmebly slid in and out on. Before they held the fan/motor assembly close to the top. Once I took those two screws out to slide it out, they bent down a little. It's all still in there solid. I tried bending them back but not much room to work in there and hold the assembly up at the same time.

Sounds like a successful DIY job !! If the slides aren't bent to bad don't worry about it.