Meat Plow writes:

On Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:37:46 -0400, Silver Surfer wrote:

Took the cover off my Crosley air conditioner to find out why the compressor
motor was tripping its thermal overload a few seconds after kicking on.

The dual section running capacitor had a strange, twisty, grayish glob
coming out of its side. The stuff looked like one of those "snakes" that
the kids light on July 4th, but is was very hard and stuck tightly to the
capacitor body. Pried it off. Looked like a small hole where it came out.

I assumed that the capacitor had bought the farm and ordered a new one.
Ouch! Best price on the Internet was about $70. Is what I described
typically what's found when one of these capacitors fails?

Typically they just fail. I thought they were filled with oil though,

AAAACCCCKKKKK!! Invasion of the capacitor worms.

Yes, normally they just open or (more likely) short. Did you try
testing it?

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