Reversing Motor direction - Wiring Help Needed!

[vtcnc]

I give up. I watched a couple videos and determined with my limited electric motor knowledge that this motor should be able to be reversed. Reason: there are four leads coming from the starting coil and running coil.

It is a 115V 1/2hp Hercules motor. OK, here is the photo:



So, am I right in assuming this can be reversed? It has a centrifugal switch and is capacitor start. No running capacitor, so I'm fairly certain that it can be reversed. I did check for resistance to try and find the starting coil by identify that which is highest resistance. That appears to be red-white. I'm just not that confident on what to do next since this is the first attempt I've made at trying such a maneuver.

Which leads get swapped here?

 

[Steve-F]

Reverse the black and the red wires and it will turn the opposite direction

 

[markba633csi]

Bryan: It should be the highest resistance pair. Maybe red and white or red and black. The colors of the capacitor wires should be a clue to help id the start winding
When your ohmmeter "kicks" low then high every time you reverse your test leads, you found the start leg. Swapping those should do it
(easier to tell with a needle type meter)
-Mark

 

[Bi11Hudson]

Starting assumption is with the motor unplugged and unloaded where it's able to freewheel. With the ohmmeter, find the pairs of leads. Clip to one pair and spin the motor as fast as possible. Clip to the other pair and repeat. Depending on the motor, spinning by hand may or may not be fast enough to open the centrifugal switch. Using a drill motor will usually get enough speed.

The pair of leads that goes open circuit at speed is the start winding. The desired end result is to reverse the relationship between the start and run windings. With machine tools, this is usually done with a drum switch. It can be done several ways, as appropriate, I often use a DPDT toggle switch. The spoken version of that is "Double Pole Double Throw".

When I use that form of switch, it is usually on DC motors and often has a "Center Off" or three positions to allow a "null" or "off" position. The "off' position is not required for AC motors and can be detrimental to running the motor in constant use. As in, the motor will not start and will let the majic smoke out if the switch is centered.

The described method is crude and somewhat slow. The key is that the process works on most motors that are reversible. Proceed, Sir.

.

 

[extropic]

Here is a link to a thread I started some years ago, asking the same question. Good help from all.

Can This Motor Be Electrically Reversed ???

I want to temporarily reverse the rotation of an import drill press. I bought it used, so am not sure of it's country of manufacture. Probably China, maybe Taiwan, I doubt Japan. I understand that "instant reverse" isn't possible with this type of motor and that's OK. I'll power off and bring it...

www.hobby-machinist.com

 

[vtcnc]

Here is a link to a thread I started some years ago, asking the same question. Good help from all.

Can This Motor Be Electrically Reversed ???

I want to temporarily reverse the rotation of an import drill press. I bought it used, so am not sure of it's country of manufacture. Probably China, maybe Taiwan, I doubt Japan. I understand that "instant reverse" isn't possible with this type of motor and that's OK. I'll power off and bring it...

www.hobby-machinist.com

Thanks Ray. This was helpful to read through. I bought a multimeter that has auto range functionality for resistance reading. I’m getting into the shop tonight and going to figure this out. Thanks everyone!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk