Bought a used 1/2 hp Century Electric motor at an auction yesterday (auctions are my weakness). Got it home and was going to hook it up to check it out and found that the little cover on the connector plate that normally has the connection information on it is missing. Googled Century and found they have been bought and sold several times and finally gave up on that avenue. Nameplate says it's 110/220 Vbut thwere are only 4 terminals on the connector block. The "top" one is empty with a spade lug, the next one, #2, has blue and white wires connected to it, #3 has no wires and #4 has a yellow wire with a spade lug. I would guess that the two end terminals with the spade lugs are probably the line connections, but for 110 or 220? I could experiment, but I don't like sparks. Anybody got one like it or can tell me what the connections should be? Century model # is CSX-66-FTK6-5FA.

 

Shophermit... if very old, then some Split-Phase, Dual-Voltage, Fractional-Hp motors can have two run-windings, and a single start-winding. When connected with five (5) leads, two (2) on one lug, and three (3) on another, as you observed, then it is wired for 220V, because the two run-windings are paralleled, not in series as you’d expect.

Three questions. Can you:

1) Confirm the motor has a single capacitor?

2) Is the capacitor's rated voltage displayed?

3) Is there a centrifugal starting-switch?

Regards, Phil Corso

 

Phil. Thanks for the info, but I guess it's all academic now. I decided to take a chance and connect 110 to the two spade lugs and it ran normally at normal current draw and RPM and that's all I really needed to know. although I would really like to see the missing connection diagram. It's just a normal, split-phase, cap- start motor with a centrifugal switch.

 

Shophermit... what is the current draw?

Phil