Repairing broken turns on an AC motor winding

[Saco]

Hello, my question is twofold so I didn't know exactly to type on the subject and whether to post it here or on the Beginners section but here's my situation:

My de-humidifier's fan stopped working so I set on a journey to fix it. I immediately found out that the start capacitor was bad and since I didn't have a proper replacement at hand, tried one with a higher capacitance. Low and behold, the thermal fuse blew.

The fuse is inside the motor's enclosure so I had to take it apart and while doing so broke off 5 turns of the winding.

1 - Since it's only 5 turns out of a 1000+ turns winding I was considering just shorting them all together, but then realized, worst case scenario I could be actually shorting the entire winding in case I was unlucky enough to break off the first and the last turns. Am I correct?

2 - As hard as it may be given how thin and short the tips are, I'm trying to solder the broken turns. As I understand it, I have to determine which ends correspond to the "start", "middle" and "end" sections and can solder them together in whichever order as long as the "start" and "end" are not solder together. Am I still correct?

[WattsThat]

Yes, you cannot reconnect without first identifying where it starts and where it ends, otherwise you’ll short turns, which would be bad. I think this is what you’re proposing but I’ll repeat the way I see things:

Identify the “middle” isolated, individual loops and then the ends that represent the start and end turns connected to the supply. The starting turn will be on one side of the break, the finishing turn must be on the opposite side. Move the start/end turns to the side.

Connect remaining isolated loops in series, order not important and you’ll be left with two tag ends that then connect to the start/end turns.

Don’t be afraid to separate the turns, peeling them away from the varnish dip and cutting lacing if you have to. Use short jumpers inside small heat-shrink. Difficulty depends upon where the break is, closer to the slots will increase your pain. In the middle of an end turn, well, that’s the best you can hope for.