Furnace Blower Does Not Start without Assistance

[dinomanlou]

I have an older Sears Power Miser Gas Furnace where the blower just stopped working one night. I awoke in the middle of the night to find the temperature in my house at 80 degrees and could hear the blower "humming." I switched the thermostat to "On" and tried assisting the motor, but it still wouldn't stay running.

I giggled some wires around, but nothing seemed to work. I then disconnected a connector where the wires from both sides of the connector go back into the motor (round with yellow and purple wires) and the motor ran as long as the thermostat is in the "On" position. What could this connector be, the start-up capacitor?

I have another part that is pretty rusted. It has a brown and a brown/white wire going to it. Is this the run capacitor?

Could either of these have caused my problem, or could it be time to replace the motor?

As of now, my furnace blower is running, but does not start without assistance. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Lou

Lou

[16x80]

dinomanlou

Welcome to the Home Repair Forums

You hit the nail on the head! The brown wires leading to the rusty thing is your capacitor. The other wires sound like a speed option. I would replace the motor and capacitor.


16x80

[dinomanlou]

Thanks for the advice. I replaced the capacitor and everything work fine again.

Lou

[16x80]

Great! The recommendation of replacing both comes from experience. It is possible that with out the proper voltage regulation from the cap that you may have damaged your motor. You got lucky. If you have another blower failure you might look at changing the motor.

16x80