[croton816]

Hi. I have a less than 2 year old Trane furnace and central air system. I noticed that my outdoor unit was full of leaves, dirt etc. I took the compressor cover off to clean it and when I was done I switched the breaker back on. Now the compressor fan runs when the a/c unit thermostat is off. It seems as though the compressor fan is only running at half speed too. Does the freon have to settle before the unit returns to normal? Any suggestions? Thank you in advance.

[letmetellu]

The fan motor in you Condensing unit is a 240 volt motor. One of the things that would make it seem as thought it was running at half speed is that one leg of the 240 volts is lost the other one is going through the motor but is grounded to the cabinet of the condensing unit therefore making it a 120 volt motor, and the slow RPM. This can be a very dangerous situaation, I am not sure how you cleaned out all the trash but you may have knocked a connector off and is it resting against the housing of the condenser.. That being the case the motor would never turn off and the compressor only having one 120 volt leg to run on would not even start because it is a large motor and needs the boast of a capacitor to start it. (Remember this is just an assumption made from a message you gave me over the internet and not necesseraly the root of your problem)

[croton816]

Wow you are good... That is exactly what happened. I apparently pulled the fan housing up too far unhooking one of the wires (purple) It then was resting against a terminal causing the fan motor to run at half speed constantly. Luckily inside the cabinet was the paperwork showing the wiring diagram. I put the wire where it belongs and am back in business again. Thank you for your help.