On 2012-08-07, Larry Jaques wrote:
I just got back from Californy today, where I had a nice birthday
(59th) with family.

Happy birthday!

Home and shop A/C was working fine until about 6pm when I felt warm
air coming out of the vent.
Aw****.

Took a listen outside and the condenser fan wasn't running but the A/C
was. Hmm...

Took a VOM out and found that the two fuses were fine and there was
239.8v across them.
OK so far.

Felt the top of the condenser fan mount and found it very warm. OK,
it's 90 out, it'll be warm in the sun. I showered it with cool water
until it was cold.

Popped the bolts loose and the fan spins freely, no frozen bearings.
It has a 60Hz hum feel to it so I think it's being (somewhat)
energized. VOM confirms that below.

Start relay has 24v from the thermostat and 119v through each
contactor and through the start cap to comp and fan. Looks normal so
far.

Then I heard a click and the compressor sounded like it labored for
just over a second before the second click happened. It was fairly
quiet.

Maybe the capacitor went bad.

i

I've never troubleshot a compressor system in a house, but it sounded
like the comp might be frozen. I took auto A/C in school in '72 so
it's very familiar in concept.

I see that there is a high-pressure switch (probably not engaged), low
pressure switch (dunno without gauge set), and thermistor switch (now
cooled with water, so doubtful as the culprit now.) System is ten
years + 4 months old and has never had a problem. I have the
installing company come out almost every year for a checkup but didn't
last year. They found a loose squirrel cage early on and some pieces
of insulation in the fan another time, but nothing else has been
required or done to it.

Any thoughts, boys and girls?