central air unit on the blink?

[remington 300]

hey guys, quick question, fired up the a/c unit tonight, getting a little humid,

after an hour or two, its not getting much cooler in the house,so i sniff aroung a little, notice the fan/sound from vents, sounded funny, checked up stairs registers and air was only warm, checked outside unit and the fan wasnt spinning and the unit was real hot,so i shut the a/c off. the blade spins but not real freely,anyone one have any ideas? the unit is about 17 years old, is it time to upgrade? replace? repair?

thanks for looking and i appreciate all replys,

mike

[Red Cabin]

You can try cleaning your outside coil with the hose first. Shut off all power to it including turning your thormostat to off, remove fan & motor assembly and spray water in the opposite direction of the air flow until clean, put fan back on and turn the power & thermostat back on.

[Eric Wettschreck]

Sounds like your fan motor is fried. 17 years old is an old unit, but a fan motor is a pretty easy and cheap fix. Unbolt and un-wire the old, wire and bolt in the new. They're right around 100-50 bucks depending on RPM, HP, frame type, etc.

On many units there is a relay that starts the fan motor that may be bad, but I doubt it. The age of this unit tells me there isn't one and the fact that the motor spins but not freely tells me the motor is kaput.

If it were me, I'd replace the condenser fan motor before I replaced the whole AC unit.

[Bigtom]

yes, I would agree with Eric on the fan being bad.

[mikey1685]

yep,sounds like the condenser fan motor, before buying a new motor make sure u can get the fan blade off the shaft,or u may need that as well, spray shaft with wd40 where the set screw is and make sure shaft is clean before trying to slide fan blade off the shaft. if rusty use some emery cloth 2 clean, u will want to make sure u replace it w/one that is the same hp and rpm and direction.as u want the blades 2 turn the rt way, that info is on name plate of motor, direction wont be though.,so if it will start in turn some,note the direction, some johnstone stores will sell to the public but not all will. you can get the motor there, also you will probley need to buy a capacter if the motor doesant come with one,some do and some dont

[luckey]

You may be able to get temporary releif by turning on the air and when the compressor starts, give the fan a push start. If it takes off you will get cooling until it has to start again. This is NOT a fix, but may get you some cooling tonight. Also, if this works you could spray a little wd 40 on the shaft. Again, the guy who recommended motor replacement are correct but you may not be able to get a motor tonight.

[Whoaru99]

Similar problem on my ancient beast a couple years back. Took apart the motor and re-oiled the bearings. Worked fine after that.