On Mon, 28 Aug 2017 10:47:47 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

I will still
need to check the caps if the contactor is working properly.
Eric

If the cap tests shorted with DVM it is obviously bad.

If the caps test good with DVM it may be good or it may be bad under load.

Best test is to buy a cap that is close to the required value to use as a test.

If it works, buy the right cap and be happy you had an inexpensive repair of an expensive machine.

m

As it turns out it was a loose connection buried deep in the electrics
box. One of the spade connectors on the coil in the contactor was
loose. NOT easy to find. Even though the wiring in the phase converter
is neat there are a lot of wires and many of these wires hide the
contactor coil connections. Fortunately not the ten caps connected in
parallel that are used for starting the thing were at fault.
Eric