Old GE central air unit

[Tarheel Technician]

I've got a 30 year old GE central air unit that was giving me trouble.......the condenser fan would run at full speed, then slow down and run at a slow speed. I checked the fan capacitor and it checked good. The fan was drawing about 2.8 amps, and it was rated at 1.5 amps. I figured the fan motor was the problem, so I replaced it. While I was doing that, I figured I'd change the capacitor as well, just to be sure. Well, now it's been working fine for a few weeks and it is doing the same thing.

Is there something else I should look for, or maybe the new fan or capacitor is bad? (Although I doubt it, lol)

The model number of this unit is BGTA730B1B

Thanks for any help.

[Jedi Appliance Guy]

The Force has sent me a vision of a machine that has been worked on by many different  techs over the years.  The wires could be a real rats nest.  They had a funny way of wiring the caps on those anyway.  It is possible your fan is on somehow wired in with the compressor cap or even in series with the crank case heater.  On a unit such as this it might be best to just pull off all the wires and start over. Wire it real simply like a rheem.  Have the contactor handle both sides of line instead of one.  Is the cap the right size?  They don't all take 5caps these days.  Also the new motor could be the wrong size.  I believe those took a 1/3 hp 1075 rpm condenser fan motor,  I had one of those units.  It was 30 years old when I changed it.  I still see them around.  They were a good unit.

[Guest ahammer48]

Hello

U might want to look at the contacts of the comp contactor( if its suppling the voltage to the fan mtr). If there in really bad shape, change it out. Could be to high a resistence threw them.