GE motors

[wa2crk]

Hi Gang
Spoke to Bill Mayo yesterday about a problem that I have with my machine.
I have the headstock removed and I had the motor and motor pan on the workbench and I was running the motor to try to isolate a possible bad bearing
I turned the motor on and let it run for a few minutes until the squeal started and turned it off for several minutes and then restarted it for a confirming test. When it was turned on for the second time it tripped the breaker immediately.
Soooo I removed the electrical tape which I covered the terminals on the switch for the bench test with and noticed that the insulation on the pigtail that goes from the switch to the motor housing was dried out and breaking apart.
Bil Mayo told me that he has seen this problem several times in the past and it is only on the GE motors.
So if you have an older machine and it has a GE motor be careful if you do any work inside the headstock and move the wires while changing the belts for example.
If you wind up with intermittent shorts check the condition of the pigtail to check for insulation breakdown.
The strange thing is that the wiring inside the motor from the centrifugal switch and the start capacitor is unaffected.
Bill V

[JPG40504]

Hi Gang
Spoke to Bill Mayo yesterday about a problem that I have with my machine.
I have the headstock removed and I had the motor and motor pan on the workbench and I was running the motor to try to isolate a possible bad bearing
I turned the motor on and let it run for a few minutes until the squeal started and turned it off for several minutes and then restarted it for a confirming test. When it was turned on for the second time it tripped the breaker immediately.
Soooo I removed the electrical tape which I covered the terminals on the switch for the bench test with and noticed that the insulation on the pigtail that goes from the switch to the motor housing was dried out and breaking apart.
Bil Mayo told me that he has seen this problem several times in the past and it is only on the GE motors.
So if you have an older machine and it has a GE motor be careful if you do any work inside the headstock and move the wires while changing the belts for example.
If you wind up with intermittent shorts check the condition of the pigtail to check for insulation breakdown.
The strange thing is that the wiring inside the motor from the centrifugal switch and the start capacitor is unaffected.
Bill V
My Goldie with a 230v A O Smith motor(1962 vintage) has the same problem. Fabric covered rubber insulation. The next time I am in it those wires will be replaced. For now, lots of tape and a prayer!

[robinson46176]

My Goldie with a 230v A O Smith motor(1962 vintage) has the same problem. Fabric covered rubber insulation. The next time I am in it those wires will be replaced. For now, lots of tape and a prayer!



Heat shrink tubing...
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[JPG40504]

Heat shrink tubing...
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Do not want to cut off the present terminals. Keep in mind there are 2x as many leads(230v motor). 'next' time is do it right time!

tnx fer suggestion!

[wa2crk]

Robinson
I thought about heat shrink but the wires were also disintegrating at the field terminals and to put heat shrink there I would have to remove the outer jacket of the cable.
So I just removed the pigtail while leaving about a half inch of the original wire with no insulation and then soldered the new wires to the old pigtais and insulated them. I will know better when I get the motor re-assembled if there will be any sparks!!
Bill V