hi, sorry to keep asking for help.
have a floor standing electric fan, found it, freebie on the street, didn't
work (nice fan, practically brand new) took it apart (years ago), found what
i thought was the problem (a small glass electronic thingy (diode or
resistor or some sort) that looked to be "burned out" (at the time i thought
it was a fuse red face) de-soldered it, removed it and re-soldered the
wire back where the diode was. when i turned on the fan it ran backwards, i
figured "someday" i'd open it back up again and give it another try (thought
i must've transposed two wires) today i was like "ok, gonna throw it out"
but thought first i'd give it ONE more try. now it's been so long i can't
remember which wire i de-soldered. i THINK it was the wire with the white
fabric covered insulation (in the photo) but can't remember. i don't think
i transposed any of the wires when i de-re-soldered them. wondering if it's
possible for someone to diagnose the problem by only just looking at a
picture.

http://www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/fanmotor.jpg

oh, and one more thing. this fan has three speeds, when i run it on the
highest speed it STILL seems slow to me, seems as if it is running HALF of
what "3" should be.

(so, it runs backwards and i think at half speed) :-(

cold outside now but i'm sure this coming summer i'm going to be KICKING
myself in the ass for throwing this fan away.

b.w.