Whole house air conditioner issue

[Joe Fisher]

I have a ComfortMaker model CAC430AKA4 condenser outside. Says Softsound 1400 on top.

When I came home from work the other day, the A/C was on, but the house was 86F. The fan on the condenser was not spinning.

So I shut off the A/C, then restarted it. Loud buzz...5 seconds...buzz...5 seconds...repeated, but the fan did not start spinning.

I spun the blades by hand and then they started spinning on their own, but slowly. The motor was far too hot to touch.

This made me believe the fan motor was no good, so I bought a replacement, installed it, and still the same issue is happening.

What else should I be checking?

[goaliedad]

Does the motor have a start capacitor? Did you check or replace it?

[Joe Fisher]

goaliedad said:

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Does the motor have a start capacitor? Did you check or replace it?

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Oh man, it does look like there's a separate capacitor. Would that cause the motor to be red hot?

[Estrogen Hostage]

Yes. Buy another capacitor and put it on before you do anything else. It's a frequent failure mode and cheap to replace.

[Robert Adams]

Yup bad capacitor. Very common. It's in the side cover with the contactor. The capacitor is for the compressor and fan both. Make sure new one has the same values.

[Joe Fisher]

Thanks everyone. Looks like a whopping $8 part.

Fingers crossed!

[Robert Adams]

Usually the old one will be puffed or blown to pieces.