Air Conditioning - Where to the brown&Yellow wires of exhaust fan connect to the capacitor?

Hi,
I have a Carrier Central air unit. Last night I noticed VERY LITTLE air coming out of register... UNIT was frozen up.Turned it off for the night. SO this morning I looked at the outside unit and It needed cleaning. The FAN sits on top and I UNHOOKED the wires and made a MENTAL note WHICH connections they went to.WRONG to rely on my memory. I remembered that BROWN on top YELLOW on bottom...I think...so I PUT the YELLOW to the middle connections on the capacitor and the brown by itself on top. I DID start to think that I didn't remember 2 connections on top since the rubber boot hid the VERY top prong...BUT I went ahead and was sure it was right. (PLEASE LOOK AT THE SUPPLIED SCHEMATIC)....anyway I turn everything on and turn the thermostat down and I coud hear the unit kick in...I went back outside and the FAN WAS working. THen I went to quickly clean the 2 halves of the body shrouds. When I went to put them on the FAN was not working...I went back inside and looked at the thermostat..I was set on 83 and real temp was 87 so it should have been on....SO my question is WHAT TERMINALS should I have hooked the BROWN and YELLOW wires to. The 3rd wire was black and it was split small so I knew where it went....
I don't know WHY this ALWAYS happens on a HOLIDAY WEEKEND....
Thanks in advance for your expert advice. PLEASE see my PICTURES at
http://members.cox.net/internetks/carrieraircond1.jpg

Wow.. that's an old carrier!

The yellow wire goes to the middle part of the capacitor, and the brown wire goes on top of the capcitor.

I hope you discharged the capacitor before touching it?????!?


On the capacitor do you see "fan" and "herm" printed or stamped on it?

Hi Jay,
Thanks for the quick reply. I just went outside with my flashlight.
The TOP 2 prongs say FAN. The MIDDLE 4 prongs have the letter "C"
The BOTTOM 3 prongs say HERM.

So I guess my original picture with the arrows was right. The YELLOW
goes to the middle 4 prongs and the BROWN goes on top to one of the
2 prongs. I WONDER why the fan quit.

Oh...NO I didn't discharge the capacitor... I guess I wasn't thinking. Was that just so I wouldn't get shocked or is it bad to hook the fan back up to a hot capacitor?

Now....about the age of the CARRIER... Is it really that old? I moved into this house in 1994 and I thought the units were just a few years old back then so 1992 or so. What is the life of a central air unit?

WELL...looks like if I have the wires on the right posts...then I'll try and fire it up again......and keep my fingers crossed. ..OH one other question.

IF the OUTSIDE unit was DIRTY...could THAT be the cause of my lines freezing? ALL the posts I have read about lines freezing points to LOW FREON. I have had SUPER COLD air ALL the years I have been here.Thanks again for your help. I'll be more careful next time and WRITE down where the wires go.

Dean

With coil freezing up inside is caused by either dirty coil inside. dirty air filter, poor air flow, or dirty fan blade.

The reason for discharge is that you won't get your butt kicked.. There is over 1,000 volts of power stored in there.. To discharge it taking a screw driver and short across the termials.. Do it a couple of times..

As for why the fan quit.. Hard to say.. with out taking reading if you are getting power there all the time.. Could be a bad bearing,and the motor is over heating and tripping off on temp safety. Or could be a bad capacitor.

I'll check into it omre to see how old the unit is.. my wild guess now it's early/mid 80's

Looks like I am right about age range.. What's the serial #?? can get lot more info from it. I can make out the model number, just not the serial

Hi Jay,

I had another picture with just half of the spec plaque.

Here's another link.

http://members.cox.net/internetks/carrierSN.jpg

The model # says 38ED036310
The S/N is 2588E34649

My attic fan with the windows open finally got the house down to
79 by early morning. With the windows now shut. The inside temp shouldn't
hit 82 until around 3-4pm. That's with highs in the low to mid 90s today.

I'm off to my mom's for lunch and will get a test meter to take readings when I turn it on for the 1st time after lunch. I'll let you know what happens.
Thanks again,
Dean

It's an 88 unit, so that put it about 17 years.. An avg life is 10 to 15 years.

Jay,

Finally turned the A/C on and so far the fan outside is still on. However the air from the register doesn't seem as cool as usual. I checked it with a digital thermometer and after 30 minutes it reads 69.3 degrees. I'm not sure what a good reading is but that is fairly close to the basement unit....just about
15 feet away. I guess I expected a 55 degree reading.... MAYBE I am low on FREON...but that would suggest I have a leak wouldn't it? What should the temperature be?

Another novice question....
The SMALL line going into the a-coil area (down stairs unit) is the hot line coming from the outside unit?? I can hold my hand on it and feel SURGES. Is that normal? Does that suggest something. THen the LARGER line that is wrapped in foam... I EXPECTED that line to be cold but it is just cool.

I hope this runs until Tuesday so I can get someone out...I guess if something is really wrong...at least I've got more than then the normal life out of it.

My house is about 1700 sq. feet. Could you suggest a brand. I live in Wichita so we do get some 100 degree days where the unit may run constantly.
Thanks for your help.
Dean

The surging on the small liquid line kinda sounds like low on charge. That line should feel warm/outdoor air temp.

FIY, those carrier coil been known to have leaks, and carrier quit making that type of coil due to leaky coil.. Trane is the ONLY company that has a sucuess with that type of coil.

so, i'd say be ready to replace that A/C and A-Coil.

I'd suggest Trane/American Standard or Rheem/Ruud line.

When someone comes out, make sure they do the heat lost/gain on your home.. NOT rule of thumb.