Dryer repair - can I use this dryer motor? [Solved]

[vgamesx2]

Alright, so I'm fixing a dryer for my parents and they bought an ever so slightly different motor, I've linked a couple photos below, first is so that you can see the part/model number if you need it, second is a better shot of the pin layout and the old motor is on the left new one is on the right, so my question is can a make this one work?

As you can see the new motor is missing a contact at the rear and there isn't a tab for the connector on the new one, both of which lead to the switch for the idler pulley, I dunno enough about motors in order to know whether this can be hacked to work in there or not or if it should just be sent back, some advice is very much welcomed.

[james_s]

I would guess you can make it work, dryer motors are pretty low tech. What's wrong with the old one? I've worked on a lot of dryers and I don't recall ever encountering a bad motor. Internally clothes dryers have not really changed significantly in 50+ years.

[vgamesx2]

From what I can tell, the bearings are completely shot, it had locked up and wouldn't turn, then while in the process of removing it, I noticed that I had to put a lot of effort in order to turn the shaft whereas the new one spins freely, I decided it was easier to replace the entire thing and used motors go for as little as $30 however, my parents figured they wanted to do the shopping because they had a gift card.

So what would I need to do to get this running then? Solder the blue wire with the connector onto that large metal piece on the left of the red wire?

[tpowell1830]

New motors typically come with a wiring diagram. Did you get one with the new one?

The other alternative is to get the sales receipt from your parents and take it back to ?? and get the correct motor. What brand is on the dryer and where did your parents buy (the dryer) originally?

[vgamesx2]

Ahhh, sorry I'm just an idiot, I think I just figured it out, it didn't include a wiring diagram just this piece of crap paper which I didn't understand the first time I read it. (and to be fair is pretty low quality and actually somehow looks worse in person)
So, all I had to do was take off the black wire, attach it to that connector, then attach the other blue wire to the back of the motor, Right? Basically putting a switch between them.
(sorry my phone rotated it)

[tpowell1830]

Agreed, that is crappy. Glad you figured it out.

[vgamesx2]

So, one final update because I figure a few people might enjoy my little fuck up, I plugged the cables into the motor the way that sheet instructed to do so, then reassembled the dryer then low and behold it doesn't work!   
I disassembled it again and oh the large power connector fell out because I didn't shove it all the way in for it to clip on, put it back together and it works! Oh well at least it's fixed.
(in my defense, I was fairly tired by that point and just wanted the thing back in one piece, although it would've saved me a lot of effort if I had just done it right the first time.)

[james_s]

Good to hear you got it working. They must have really cheapened up the motors in recent years, I've seen lots of 40+ year old dryers that are still going fine. One that I end up working on semi-regularly at a vet clinic gets run pretty much 8 hours a day 6 days a week and I've replaced heating elements, thermostats, belts, idler, rollers, etc in some cases multiple times yet the motor itself hasn't skipped a beat.

[vgamesx2]

Well, the dryer is about 10 years old + it was used so in total it's roughly 15-20 years old, so a motor failing after about 20 years of use isn't too bad, plus the dryer is almost never cleaned except when it breaks, you should've seen how much lint was inside of that old motor, but on the plus side, I got a free 1/3 HP motor, all I need to do is lube it up and maybe replace the bearings and it'll be as good as new and probably make for a nice DIY table/band saw.

[N2IXK]

They have DEFINITELY cheapened up dryer motors in recent years.  I had to replace one on a GE machine less than 10 years old that only dries 3 loads/week.  Cause of failure was an intermittent short from the winding to ground that would trip the GFCI receptacle.  Went nuts trying to find it (would fail every couple weeks, but would work fine once GFCI was reset). Finally had to megger the motor to find the breakdown between the (Aluminum!) winding and the stator laminations, due to a crack in the fishpaper insulation. Motor was a fine example of "built for minimum price" engineering.  Oddly, the aftermarket replacement motor was MUCH better construction than the OEM one, with actual copper windings and thicker insulation.

[james_s]

I guess it's hard to blame them. I would wager that the majority of dryers that get scrapped have nothing wrong with them at all, they're just cosmetically out of style and/or the matching washer failed and the owner bought a new matched set. A large majority of those that are actually broken probably have very simple faults.

Not that there are too many faults that can occur in a dryer that aren't simple, there's very little to the whole machine. Even most of the recent stuff with fancy looking control panels is the same internal parts as one that is 40-50 years older. I recently fixed the fancy "electronic" infinite temperature control on my own dryer, turns out it's nothing more than a variable resistor in series with a resistor built into the cycling thermostat on the heating element, 240V fed directly through the variable resistor controls how hot the resistor in the thermostat gets, which shifts the temperature it cycles around. It's a slight twist on the standard pushbutton low/hi setup that dryers have used since at least the 1950s.

A few months ago worked on the moisture sensor on a friend's dryer and found it's nothing more than a triac switch that cuts power to the timer motor each time wet clothes pass over the sensing contacts. The wetter the clothes, the lower the duty cycle of the timer motor and the longer the dryer runs. Clever really, but 1970s technology in a mid 2000's dryer. In that case the triac had failed shorted so the timer was never pausing and the clothes wouldn't get dry before it ran out.

I don't do this for a living but when word gets around that you're good at fixing stuff, people come out of the woodwork with broken stuff.

[Bushougoma]

I had to replace the motor on my 6 year old Whirlpool dryer a year ago because it was humming. The bearings were just fine and the shaft spun freely.

Upon closer inspection the centrifugal switch failed not the contacts but the metal (probably cast aluminum) weights did. When the motor reaches speed the weights fly outward against the tension of two return springs and disconnect the start winding. Each weight had a little C shaped portion on the casting where one of two springs hooked on.

Due to the constant cycling of the motor (dryer has a wrinkle mode where it constantly turns the motor on and off) the steel spring wore down the aluminum till the portion where one of the springs hooked on broke off. This caused the weights to not snap back and reconnect the start winding when the motor shut down. So the motor essentially had no start winding.

Of course the frames of these motors are welded so I had to chuck a whole motor because a tiny piece of aluminum had failed .

It looks like your generic replacement motor is screwed together the OEM FSP motors sure aren't. I wonder if any internal parts are available?

[SeanB]

For that I would probably have disconnected that centrifugal switch and put in a standard compressor start relay, along with a hard start kit. Bonus is overload protection as well.

[Bushougoma]

Interesting idea never thought of adding a start cap and potential relay to a split phase motor. That's what those hard starts kits are basically right?

I'd consider it if the motor was more expensive but a replacement OEM motor was only $60 so it was probably not worth messing with.

It also looked like they beefed up where the springs ride on the replacement motor to hopefully make the weights more wear resistant. Time will tell.

[SeanB]

Hard start kit is a 100uF 400VAC motor start capacitor and a series PTC thermistor. Limited to 10 starts per hour, but have not had any blow up with a stalled compressor yet either. Really helps with those older compressors that draw large start up current and are on a long power feed. or for those that are cycled regular by the controller. I have abused one as an emergency fan run capacitor till I could get a replacement cap the next day, and both fan and cap survived, though the fan did run a little hotter than normal, but that could have just been because it was running and not humming a tune for a few hours.

[james_s]

I had one of those blow up the PTC after about a week on a refrigerator. Replacement unit has been going for a few years though. I found a circuit to build one using a triac rather than PTC but have not got around to building it to try yet.

[Housedad]

You get what you pay for nowadays.    My dryer, washer, fridge, and upright freezer were all bought 20 years ago and still going strong   Had to replace the belt on the dryer twice.   Now that the kids are grown, it is time to get some newer stuff,  But I would have to buy the top of the line nowadays if I want it to last another 20 years.  Interestingly, a chest freezer I inherited from my grandmother and still is in use and doing fine was made in 1957.  Only had to have the freon recharged after I got it 10 years ago.

Everything is being made cheaper but they still want you to think it is quality.   Sort of like when I go to the store and buy a box of frozen food that used to have 5 items in it and now it has 4 at the same price and same size box.  Deception and misdirection. 

[james_s]

That makes my blood boil. I completely understand the need to increase prices, but when they make the product smaller and keep the box the same, or make the box thinner, or come up with excuses like the candy bar company that said they were making the bars smaller to reduce the calories and make them more healthy it just feels like someone is trying to cheat me. I notice, and it makes me angry, I don't like to be cheated. If you need to raise the price, raise the price, just be upfront about it. I don't want a smaller more healthy candy bar, I don't eat a candy bar for my health. I don't want a "gallon" of icecream that is less than a gallon.

[laundryolivos]

Sorry,Ihave  a similar problem with this motor connection,can you help me? In the old motor a yellow cable went to the switch and I dont know where can I put it now,thank you

[james_s]

Are you actually an employee of that business or is this just spam?