Let neighbor borrow fan during hurricane Rita. It is 2 spd.30in pedistal fan. Returned with pull chain switch missing.Old switch positions were1 off, first pull low, second pull off, third pull high,pull again, off.have no idea how switch was wired. Tried ceiling fan switch in various wiring combos fan would run different speeds in diff. pos. but motor gets hot and therm. Protector cuts it off after about one minute.Have one black and one red wire coming from windings.Is this hi and low? Have one brown wire that is wire nutted to black house wiring. Should this go to L pos. on switch? White wire from house wire is nutted to white going to motor. Green is terminated to fan hsng.Ithink my prob. Is in new switch. It will not meter to act like old switch. Could this cause motor to heat up? Thanks in advance.GETTING HOT.

What replacement fan switch are you using? There really is only one type of two speed switch so if your replacement is two speed it should be OK. Sounds like brown goes to L, black and red go to 1 and 2 respectively as you surmised. It's possible they brought it back with something else wrong besides just the switch missing. Do the blades still turn freely by hand?

These are geared towards ceiling fans but a lot of it still applies so please check them out:

Ceiling fan pull chain replacement and repair - Ceiling Fans N More

Frequently asked ceiling fan questions - Ceiling Fans N More

Whoops-- sorry, disregard the last link. Wrong one. I eamnt it to be this one:'

General ceiling fan troubleshooting and help FAQ- Ceiling Fans N More

And I suspect the reason your thermal protector is kicking in pertains to this:

Oiling your ceiling fan - Ceiling Fans N More

Thanks for your reply. Yes blades turn freely. I think I got it fingreed out. Need diff. type switch. Today I wired fan direct one wire at a time to brown wire . Works fine ran 15 min. on each wire no over heating. THANKS AGAIN.

I think the first switch you got wasn't a two speed switch. It may have been a 3 wire 3 speed switch as mentioned in that first document. Your wiring it one at a time is correct.