Air Conditioning - Fan not working

My exterior central air fan does not seem to be working. I have checked the circuit breakers, I have checked the power with a meter and it seems to be getting power. The fan blades move freely when I push them so they dont seem to be blocked or stuck. I'm not sure what else it could be. Could it be a timer? or maybe a motor that has gone bad? A friend who does commercial HVAC suggested that maybe we need a "hardjump", does that sound right? Thanks in advance.

No, it does not sound right.

Set the thermostat so that it is calling for A/C then go out to the outside unit. Do you hear anything at all? If you do, and your fan is not turning, use a stick and give it a shove in the right direction and see if it starts up.

If you do not hear anything at all do a visual inspection of the wiring to the unit. Maybe you hit the small wires with a weedeater or something.

Report back and we can go from there.

Thanks for the suggestions. I checked the wires, they seem fine. Also I do hear a humming when the A/C is turned on. I tried to spin the blades but they did start up. What else should I try?

I tried to spin the blades but they did start up.
DId it run or not then??????
Also I do hear a humming when the A/C is turned on.

Is this the compressor??? Does it try to start??

Do all the capacitor look good ???

ED;)

the blades spin but only when i push them manually. They do not spin on their own. I believe the noise is coming from the fan motor. I am not really familiar enough to know whether the capacitors are ok. I know that when turning it on from the inside I hear something kick on but I assume it is just the forced air.

Any Ideas?

so your saying the fan won't keep going if you give it a nudge. then you need to replace the fan, it will also come with new caps. If you here a noise from the fan motor probably a hum thats the coils starting to over heat because there is no slippage between the armature and stator to limit the current . This would also mean the fan is getting power. So it should get pretty hot pretty quick and more than likely the thermal limiter switch will melt and then reset when it cools we wouldn't want your place to burn down. 15-30min later it should reset.
this is if you are sure the fan is getting voltage.

The caps will look like some small tin cans with 2 connection for wires on type and will have wires that go to the fan. I think he wants you to do a visual check to see if they leaked fluid or blew up.

You can't do a functional check unless you have a capacitance meter or set up a test with an o-scope to measure the discharge time constant