If the motor case has a lump on the outside it is a capacitor
housing. Capacitors are fairly inexpensive and easy to change.
You will need to open up the "lump", take the capacitor along with
you. It will usually have 2 leads of the same color attached to
the capacitor, it does not matter which one goes where - be very
aware that capacitors can have a large dose of electricity stored
up, don't be the path.

If the motor has two lumps it has both a start capacitor and a run
capacitor.

If the motor doesn't have a lump, it is probably centrifugal
switched to bypass the start windings. You would need to open the
end bell with the weights. About all you could do would be to
clean up any gummy residue that may be preventing the contacts
coming back in to engage the start windings.

It would probably help to tell the brand name. Virtually all
tablesaws have pulleys with the exception of the newer, cheap
direct drives. Your motor will have a plate telling the Volts,
Amps, Horsepower, This information would also help.

--
______________________________
Keep the whole world singing . . . .
DanG (remove the sevens)




wrote in message
...
I have a very old table saw (runs off a pulley) that won't start
unless I give the pulley wheel a gentle spin just as I turn on
the
switch to the saw. I'd like not to have to start the saw this
way (for
obvious reasons), but don't know enough about electrical motors,
capacitors, centrifugal switches, etc. to know how to fix this
problem. Can anyone out there help me?

Thanks.

Lynn Willis