In article .com,
"paulfoel" writes:
Heater comes on no problem (so its not the thermal switch).

When I take belt off the motor does not turn until I give it a slight
nudge. If I put the belt back on I still cant get the drum to turn
(probably because I cant turn it fast enough to start the motor up).

Could this be the capacitor? I've heard that this type of motor uses
the capacitor to kick start the motor.

To be honest, it started happening but if you left it for 30 mins it
would then work OK (capacitor charging?). Now thought theres nothing.

My wife insists though that occasionally the dryer stopped half way
through. I know its a reverse action so I was wondering if this could
be explained by the motor needing to stop and then restart in the
opposite direction (using the capacitor).

Any ideas ?

The capacitor is easy to test. What rating is written on it?
Assuming it's a mains one, connect it in series with a mains
light bulb (something between 40W and 100W), and the light
should come on, but not as bright running directly off the
mains. Beware in case the capacitor case has become live in
some internal failure.

However, the nature of the fault you describe sounds to me
more like a broken motor winding. Capacitors don't usually
fail intermitently.

--
Andrew Gabriel