Air Conditioning - Outside AC unit stopped working.

The AC in my house blows ambient air only. The outside unit isn't coming on at all, no fan, no buzzing nothing. Checked the fuse panel and all is well. The entire AC unit inside the house is a year old, everything in the outside unit is 2 years old except for the fan motor. If the fan motor is bad, shouldn't I hear a buzzing at least?
Thoughts?

Thanks!!

I have 3 wires going to the fan, red, brown and black. Red is getting power. Brown is going to the capacitor and the back is going to what looks like a relay panel of some sort.

Ok, on the contactor, I pushed the spring in (didn't stay in)and the unit kicked including fan. What next, at a loss now.

You aren't getting a 24 volt signal to the contactor. Could be a possible broken wire from a weed whacker or a connection from the stat or a bad coil on the contactor. A volt meter would help you narrow down the problem.

You aren't getting a 24 volt signal to the contactor. Could be a possible broken wire from a weed whacker or a connection from the stat or a bad coil on the contactor. A volt meter would help you narrow down the problem.Thanks for the response. The battery on my volt meter go figure is about to die. Should the coil show 24v going to it?

You should see 24 volts on the two small wires to the side of the contactor (the spring relay that you pressed in)..if you don't have voltage then you have to trace the wires back to see where you do have voltage. If the unit wasn't cooling as good as it used to, could be you have a low pressure switch inside the a/c that isn't allowing it to start. Could be a resettable high pressure switch if your a/c is equipped with one.

This is what I have to work with. Not sure if this will help. Sorry, I know nothing about AC's. :(

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o319/RussManK3/ac21.jpg

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o319/RussManK3/ac2.jpg

Forgive the red prong sticking in the spring, need to cool down the house :)

Those 2 blue wires at the bottom of the picture of your contactor should have 24 volts when you take out your red prong. From the black looks of those contacts, it's time to replace the contactor. Not saying it will fix it, only a volt meter will tell you where to start.

Those 2 blue wires at the bottom of the picture of your contractor should have 24 volts when you take out your red prong. From the black looks of those contacts, it's time to replace the contactor. Not saying it will fix it, only a volt meter will tell you where to start. Ok, I checked the voltage at the panel (first picture) of the top blue wires (same as the 2 on the contactor) with the spring OUT (outside unit not working but ac still on) and it only showed 13 volts.

Did you replace the battery in your meter? All readings with a bad battery are not to be trusted. With 13 volts going to the contactor, next thing to do is locate the small cable that comes to the outdoor unit, then locate inside the unit where the ends of that cable are landed and test the voltage there. It should be 24 volts [thermostat calling for cooling of course.] If you don't have 24 volts, locate the other end of that cable inside the furnace or air handler and see if you have 24 volts on the cable there.

Did you replace the battery in your meter? All readings with a bad battery are not to be trusted. With 13 volts going to the contactor, next thing to do is locate the small cable that comes to the outdoor unit, then locate inside the unit where the ends of that cable are landed and test the voltage there. It should be 24 volts [thermostat calling for cooling of course.] If you don't have 24 volts, locate the other end of that cable inside the furnace or air handler and see if you have 24 volts on the cable there.Ok, checked the voltage from the brown cable coming from inside the house to the outside unit (red, blue, green, orange and white) nothing over 15v. Checked inside the air handler and found the brown cable with the same colored wires going to this panel on the left side. The voltage reading is the same as outside. This testing is with the prong still in the spring, inside and outside unit ON and running.
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o319/RussManK3/board.jpg

Guessing you have the tstat in cooling and only the indoor fan is running.

From the pics and 5 wires in the "brown cable" guessing heat pump also.

Make Model Serial numbers?
Picture of the terminal board?

List of what wires go to which terminal?

Y terminal has what color
R terminal has what color
C terminal has what color
G terminal has what color
W terminal has what color

Guessing you have the tstat in cooling and only the indoor fan is running.

From the pics and 5 wires in the "brown cable" guessing heat pump also.

Make Model Serial numbers?
Picture of the terminal board?

List of what wires go to which terminal?

Y terminal has what color
R terminal has what color
C terminal has what color
G terminal has what color
W terminal has what color

Its a Goodman model WG0-0751/1002

Not sure which terminal board your speaking but this is the entire wiring in the air handler inside the house. During the volt test, I had the entire system on and running, inside and outside.
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o319/RussManK3/panel2.jpg

Tried to get a close up of this board.
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o319/RussManK3/panel3.jpg

close up of the relay board, whatever it's called.
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o319/RussManK3/panel.jpg

Interesting. I pulled the prong out so the spring would come out to shut the outside unit off, it did. Now the inside air handler wont shut off. I turned if off and it still runs. Flipped the fuse off and well it went off. While the switch on the AC is still in off mode, I turned the fuse back to the on position and it came back on.


EDIT: Nevermind, had the "Fan on" switch on instead of Auto. :wall:

I've been following..but no real advice, so I've kept quiet. More electronics than any unit I ever messed with.

One note..fuses don't have switches..I think you probably mean circuit breaker. "Breaker" as most people call it. Proper nomenclature is always better when troubleshooting things long distance.

2nd note....it's a "probe"..not a prong.

Not being a wiener..just spent too long as an instructor of various things...lol. Hope you get it fixed soon.

I've been following..but no real advice, so I've kept quiet. More electronics than any unit I ever messed with.

One note..fuses don't have switches..I think you probably mean circuit breaker. "Breaker" as most people call it. Proper nomenclature is always better when troubleshooting things long distance.

2nd note....it's a "probe"..not a prong.

Not being a wiener..just spent too long as an instructor of various things...lol. Hope you get it fixed soon. heh, ok thanks for the English lesson :) Beer 4U2

Ok. In the 1st pic in POST 31 there are 6 wire nuts. They go where? Some are wired to the Molex (that white thing) plug, some Looks like at least 2 go through to the outdoor unit.

Would be great to see a good pic of that wiring diagram all the wires are laying on.

Pic #2 shows what looks to be the control board for your air handler.

On the left there is your input/output from the transformer. Square black box on the right is a relay. Most likely low speed fan for heat and Med or High for cooling.

Pic #3 is your heat package. Warren makes most elect heat packages used. Small round switch on the very top is a sequencer, it turns contactor's on and off on a regular basis when the elec is on. Next down the almost squares ( left and right) are high limits. One for each side.

So a pic of the diagram would be great.
Where do the wires at each wire nut go? And to what terminals?

In pic #1 2/3 rds to the right is a pair of black wires that seem to penetrate the base. Does this go to a condensate switch in the evap section which is keeping the outdoor unit off all along?

Ok. In the 1st pic in POST 31 there are 6 wire nuts. They go where? Some are wired to the Molex (that white thing) plug, some Looks like at least 2 go through to the outdoor unit.

Would be great to see a good pic of that wiring diagram all the wires are laying on.

Pic #2 shows what looks to be the control board for your air handler.

On the left there is your input/output from the transformer. Square black box on the right is a relay. Most likely low speed fan for heat and Med or High for cooling.

Pic #3 is your heat package. Warren makes most elect heat packages used. Small round switch on the very top is a sequencer, it turns contactor's on and off on a regular basis when the elec is on. Next down the almost squares ( left and right) are high limits. One for each side.

So a pic of the diagram would be great.
Where do the wires at each wire nut go? And to what terminals?

In pic #1 2/3 rds to the right is a pair of black wires that seem to penetrate the base. Does this go to a condensate switch in the evap section which is keeping the outdoor unit off all along? The connection to the off white colored board lead to those 6 blue wire nuts. Those nuts are tied in with 2 brown cables. One goes to the outside unit. The other, well goes to la la land. I can follow those outside the air handler up into the ceiling. I tried to take a pic of the diagram but it doesn't turn out that well on the camera. You can't really make anything out :wall:

The small black wires that go through the bottom of the handler, that leads to a set of UV lights that sit above the coils.

The wires that are connected to the brown cables are in pic #2, the group of wires on the left.

la la land is the thermostat, that's where the other cable goes to. In the air handler, notice the transformer to the right of the circuit board. What voltage do you have on the input? What voltage do you have on the output? Then notice R and C terminals on the left side of the circuit board? What voltage to you have there? Take out the prong you have holding the contactor in when taking the readings. Did you replace the battery?

la la land is the thermostat, that's where the other cable goes to. In the air handler, notice the transformer to the right of the circuit board. What voltage do you have on the input? What voltage do you have on the output? Then notice R and C terminals on the left side of the circuit board? What voltage to you have there? Take out the prong you have holding the contactor in when taking the readings. Did you replace the battery?Thank you, I'll do this in the morning since its already dark outside. :thumbup:

The connection to the off white colored board lead to those 6 blue wire nuts. Those nuts are tied in with 2 brown cables.

Yeah, no kidding. How about looking in the other direction? Like the wirenut holing white wires goes into the Molex white, comes out white and then to the heat strip contactors. On the other side does it go to the tstat (la la land) and the outdoor unit?

Honestly, if you can't follow a colored wire to it's ends and inform as to the letter termination (R, C, G, Y, O, W) we will not be able to help much.

Don't mean to sound pissy, but if you can't help us we sure can't help you.

Yellow wire was broken underground in the brown cable. Contactor was bad. Replaced all and is working. Thanks everyone for their help!!