Ceiling Fan Motor Wiring

[pei42]

Several years ago, for fun, I built myself a belt driven ceiling fan from a couple of old fans. A year ago the motor went out so I visited a local fan shop and bought a used fan motor, no brand name. The 9 pin plug on the motor fit the 9 pin plug on the switch but gave me only one speed because the wires are different in number and pin location. So here is what I have: the motor has 6 wires. They are black, white and also red, yellow, brown and purple. Measuring resistance from white or black to anything gives an open circuit. Red to yellow gives 650 ohms and brown to purple gives 575 ohms. Note- 3 wire capacitor.

Question: how to arrange the connections to the pull chain switch? Thank you.

[Bill Arden]

So here is what I have: the motor has 6 wires. They are black, white and also red, yellow, brown and purple. Measuring resistance from white or black to anything gives an open circuit. Red to yellow gives 650 ohms and brown to purple gives 575 ohms. Note- 3 wire capacitor.

I added a switch back in my ceiling fan. It looks like your's is similar.

You will need to be able to take measurements after the capacitor, while not loosing what motor wires connect to it.

"Red to yellow gives 650 ohms"
"brown to purple gives 575 ohms."

Q: Any other combinations?
Q: What colors connect to the capacitor?

[pei42]

Thanks, Bill, for the response.

No other combinations give a resistance reading. All reading were taken with the motor unplugged from the switch.

capacitor wires are one black and two white.

I'm thinking this motor must have two sets of winding that it combines to get the high speed. I'm tempted to energize one of the combinations and see what happens. In reality, I can pick up a used fan with the switch wired correctly then transfer my belt pulley but this has got me going now.

[Bill Arden]

Can you measure from the black and white capacitor wires to the other wires?

I see two possibilities.
1. It used a dual switch.
2. It used a transformer.
3. It did something clever with the capacitor.
4. It's bad since Red and yellow should have resistance to brown and purple

You might want to use a 100Watt light bulb in series to limit the current while testing.

The common type that I have seen have 2 extra taps on the main winding and then it uses the lower tap to connect to the capacitor.

I would guess White is common since there are two whites on the cap.

Then each other wire would be a speed, but that leaves one too many wires.

[pei42]

Hi Bill, Hope you're still around.


Using only the fan motor-no switch, no reversing switch, no capacitor I fed the Red/Yellow pair ( 650 ohms)and got a slow speed. I then fed the Brown/purple pair(575 ohms) and got a faster speed. I then combined the pairs in parallel and got a slightly different speed, probably faster but difficult to tell.

On slow speed I had to give the motor a push to get it turning without the capacitor. It runs either way depending on how it's pushed so the capacitor must be an integral part of the functional wiring of the reversing switch.

One correction- the capacitor has two white and a red, not black, wire.

Now I could eliminate the reversing switch as a last resort as it's never used but the fan would have to start in the correct direction.

So, any more thoughts? Thank you, Paul

[Bill Arden]

Do you know what wires were connected to the reversing switch?

Here is what I am guessing.

1. The Cap's two white wires are the same. Check with ohm meter.
2. The Black motor wire was supposed to be high speed.
3. The White cap wire is supposed to be connected to neutral.
4. The motor's white wire was supposed to be connected to the motor's black wire.

From here you could use either the Brown/purple pair or the Red/Yellow pair for the main and then use the other pair as the cap pair.

Either way I don't see how this is going to work at other speeds.
There is simply not enough conductive paths left to wire it properly.

My guess is that the motor has a thermal fuse inside and that it opened up.

I'm sorry to say, but you might want to start with a different motor if you want to use a standard 3 speed switch.