[testingthingsout]

Hello everyone, this is my first question on this forum. I hope that some of you can help me out with this query, as I'm literally out in the cold right now.

My inducer motor just went out on our central a/c heating unit. It's a York rooftop model. I am wondering if someone could guide me as to how to replace such a part by myself. The local heating company is charging upwards of $250 to order and install it and it's money I don't have right now.
I wonder if you could send any pointers my way.
Also, is there any way to repair an inducer motor, instead of having to replace it?

If you are able to redirect any help my way, that would be great,

Thank you very much.

[labman]

Replacing it is just a matter of seeing where it is, and what all you have to take apart to get at it. Be a little careful. It is the furnace vent, and needs to be put back together without any leaks to let CO into the house.

If you get all the details off the motor, M/N, S/N, volts, amps, rpm, frame, shaft size, etc. you may get a better deal at a electric supply or on line at www.meco.com or such. Be very careful to note where the wires are connected. They often have multiple leads to give the speed your system needs. The new motor needs to have exactly the same leads connected as the old.

Usually if a motor quits running, the windings are shot. It is standard practice to rewind large industrial motors, but the labor for a little inducer motor would be unreal.

[labman]

From a PM:

> First off, thank you very much for having replied to me.
> My brother mentioned that a while back, our inducer motor had already given out. Apparently, his friend came over and took it apart and lubricated the interiors of the motor. Have you ever heard about a practice like this?
> If so... is this something that one can do to try to get the fan inside the motor going?
> A bit of background on this problem is as follows: I live in California, where our temps. Are falling to 40 and about 30 in the evenings. We had recently put a tarp on our rooftop unit to try to avoid a roof leak from coming into the kitchen. My guess is that the air wasn't circulating well enough because of the tarp. About 5 days ago, the inducer motor had stopped and we took the tarp off, that worked, the heating was back on. So we kept the tarp off. However, a day or 2 later the heating totally went out in the evening time when the temps fell. So I wonder if the lubrication within the inducer motor had anything to do with this as in the past it did. I'm asking if you have any knowledge about this because I don't know much about our heating unit, and would like to take a better informed step at trying to fix it. As it is, I'm faced with having to replace it if I can't get it back up and running, but I have a feeling I might be able to fix it. So then, might this be a fixable problem, and not necessarily a replaceable one?

Motors ferequently fail because the bearings went bad because they went dry. Sometimes you can rescue one by oiling the bearings, or even replacing them. Too much, or too heavy oil can be a problem too. Before doing anything, take an ohm reading between the motor leads and the housing of the motor. Unless it is off scale, the windings are shot.

Covering the unit may have interfered with the air intake.

[rickdb1]

I have found that the temporary fixes are just that. Best to replace the motor and not worry about it failing again at an inopportune time...