Baldor L1410T, 5hp motor

[1930]

I am ready to wire in this new compressor motor. I need help with this. There are 4 wires coming out of motor, a red, yellow black and a blue.

I have my 220V black, white and ground coming out of the wall.

My compressor needs to spin in a clockwise direction.

Anybody here know what gets connected where, If one were to google the schematic its easy to get one but I have no idea how to read it and dont want to burn this up guessing.  thanks

[rusty]

First, let's get a handle on the clockwise direction thing, it depends which end of the motor you are looking at ;P

'Standard' rotation is COUNTER clockwise, when looking at the end of the motor OPPOSITE the shaft.
'Opposite' rotation is the other way....

If you are looking at the compressor pully, standing on that side of the compressor, and you want it to rotate counterclockwise as you are looking at it, you want the motor to rotate 'Standard'

So you want to connect
Line_Red to Blue+Red
Line_Black to Yellow+Black

I am assuming you ran red and black wires for 230Volt, you don't use a neutral, but you should have a ground.

To reverse it from that, exchange the Red and Black motor leads.

This is a single voltage motor with no voltage taps of externaly accessable switches, so it's more or less idiot proof, the worst that you can do is make it not work at all ...

Incidently, the leads shouls also be numbered 1 through 4...
Don't forget to attach a ground lead to the thing...

Be aware that this motor can draw in excess of 30 amps overloaded, ideally it should have a motor protector on it, but fusing it for 20 amps or so should work for a compressor if you have unloaders (100% load current is 21 amps, start current is going to be several times that)

[1930]

Rusty I was just logging on to report alot of this stuff that you mentioned here above I was able to find with some searches on-line. I will have to go back now and re-read what you have posted but I am sure you have me going in the right direction.

I was hoping to finally fire this thing up today and maybe now I can. Thanks for the quick and thorough response

[1930]

By the way I have always wondered what this symbol means that seems to be used here quite often ......;P

[1930]

I am looking at the backside of the motor when I am standing in the front of the compressor. In other words the pulley is on the backside

There is a sticker on the belt guard that indicates a clockwise direction. I see this sticker once again if I were looking at the front of the compressor, again the shaft/pulley being on the backside

[1930]

Im an idiot when it comes to electrical so if you could confirm, I am guessing that I am going to connect the 1 and the 5 together and the 4 and the 8 together and it does not matter which I connect my black or white 220 power source to.

[rusty]

I am guessing that I am going to connect the 1 and the 5 together and the 4 and the 8 together and it does not matter which I connect my black or white 220 power source to.

Correct (for Opp rotation)
It does not matter which of the 2 line wires you use for which motor connection (black/white I guess you are using)
(however, to make it easier for the next guy,who will probably be you, I'd keep black to black...)


I would also recommend starting it up the first time without the belt on it....
(Because rotating the motor the wrong way doesn't hurt anything, but that may not be true for the compressor...just to be extra safe...)

Also, don't take this the wrong way,but, I *assume* you have the motor bolted down....cause it's a big motor, and bad things happen otherwise....
(I have seen guys test a motor on the floor...with interesting results...)

[1930]

Thanks again Rusty, yes it is bolted down and it has been all put together with belts ect. I had a heck of a time getting tension on both belts, dont know why so I ended up placing my porta-power between the compressor and the motor and giving it a bit of a squeeze ( pushing the motor away from the compressor ) so their was tension on both.

Prob. a no no but again I couldnt seem to get the belt deflection correct any other way.

I have seen these motors mounted on adjustable beds that would move by turning a bolt on one end. Sorta the same concept as my porta but either way I do not have one of these.

Dont want to burn any bearings out.

Might re-think this before I start it up which now wont be until maybe next weekend. Not enough daylight hours here, especially with the rain

[1930]

Finally have it running sorta, I know I did not need to use this box, I believe it had something to do with the 3 phase motor I removed and I could have just directly wired straight into motor and it would have made life easier but I had it and I didnt want to throw it away and it saved me from having to buy extra wire.

The problem I am having though is that the compressor will not kick on unless I keep the small square button pushed in at the top in the center.

Any idea what this is all about, there is a small brownish colored button that is depressed at the bottom when the cover is in place and the compressor runs with or without this being pushed in.

Gotta be a way to keep this circuit closed without sticking a toothpick in the opening of that upper button.

[rusty]

That thing with the button appears to be a contactor. You need one with a three phase motor so the pressure switch on the compressor can turn the motor on and off. I assume you wired the pressure switch in series with the motor????

What does it say on it for 'coil voltage' ?

Also, you have your machine grounded through a fusable link..BAD BAD BAD!

What is that ground attached to? Neutral? Probably also bad....

[1930]

RUH ROH Dont know anything about wiring the pressure switch with the motor but it takes 6 minutes to fill and shut off ( versus the 16 minutes ( at least ) that my old compressor took) and shuts off at 200 psi and kicks back on at 150, thats with something wedged in that switch deelio.

Where would I find the coil voltage and why is that important?

I dont see where there is a fusible link, lower right corner of picture the ground wires are inserted into the copper connector which is bolted directly to the compressor as a ground.

Is this contactor than not working as it should, why would I need to depress it to make it make contact and flow the juice from the top bands thru to the bottom and then on down over to the switch and into the motor?

[rusty]

The contactor isn't working because the coil (which pulls in the little button) isn't connected to anything as far as I can see in your picture.

See the lable on the right side of the box? (The one that says read before wiring LOL), under it it says 'coil', that's to tell you what screws yto use for the coil)

There are a pair of terminals on it somewhere , you are supposed to supply power to the coil through a pressure switch (and on some compressors through a low oil p cutout) to activate the coil which in turn makes the motor run.

If you have the pressure switch wired in somewhere else (sounds like it) you can just jump the coil to the power to make it always on, tho it's kinda a weird thing to do...(from the web site, furnas/siemens contactor 42bf- is 220v , but I can't read the number in your photo all that well)

>I dont see where there is a fusible link
Those 3 tin colored vertical strips of metal with a screw at each end are thermal motor fuses ...

Oh, and the little red rectangle button is the cover safety switch, because you are pushing the contactor in by hand, it's not going to do anything, but when you have it wired right, it prevents the contactor from operating with the door open.

The ground should NEVER pass through a contactor, and it shouldn't be on a lug with an insulated wire...
Is the right most wire a ground or a neutral?

If it is a ground, it should pass through the box, and be attached to the box, not to anything on the contactor assembly.

If it is a neutral, it shouldn't be attached to the box, and you need *another* wire for a neutral, but, I don't think you need a neutral for this thing, it's 220, with nothing else that needs 110 , so you don't need a neutral to get 110, but you *do* need a ground somewhere....

(Confused yet? Sorry, I don't know how ot make this simple....:(

[1930]

The contactor isn't working because the coil (which pulls in the little button) isn't connected to anything as far as I can see in your picture.

See the lable on the right side of the box? (The one that says read before wiring LOL), under it it says 'coil', that's to tell you what screws yto use for the coil)

There are a pair of terminals on it somewhere , you are supposed to supply power to the coil through a pressure switch (and on some compressors through a low oil p cutout) to activate the coil which in turn makes the motor run.

If you have the pressure switch wired in somewhere else (sounds like it) you can just jump the coil to the power to make it always on, tho it's kinda a weird thing to do...(from the web site, furnas/siemens contactor 42bf- is 220v , but I can't read the number in your photo all that well)

>I dont see where there is a fusible link
Those 3 tin colored vertical strips of metal with a screw at each end are thermal motor fuses ...

Oh, and the little red rectangle button is the cover safety switch, because you are pushing the contactor in by hand, it's not going to do anything, but when you have it wired right, it prevents the contactor from operating with the door open.

The ground should NEVER pass through a contactor, and it shouldn't be on a lug with an insulated wire...
Is the right most wire a ground or a neutral?

If it is a ground, it should pass through the box, and be attached to the box, not to anything on the contactor assembly.

If it is a neutral, it shouldn't be attached to the box, and you need *another* wire for a neutral, but, I don't think you need a neutral for this thing, it's 220, with nothing else that needs 110 , so you don't need a neutral to get 110, but you *do* need a ground somewhere....

(Confused yet? Sorry, I don't know how ot make this simple....:(

The right most wire is a ground, I just passed all three wires thru these contacts and then ran that right contact ( ground ) on down to the lug in the far right corner where I have made a ground. ( a that was the ground originally when it had the 3 phase )

Let me get you a better picture so you can hold my hand and tell me which wire goes where to get that coil/switch working properly

[1930]

Second and third picture down at least you can maybe barely see that there are two lugs up on top just behind where my incoming power is coming down.

Originally they did have some much smaller gauge wire ( maybe 18 gauge ) running down to the terminals on the left side that you can see. Let me get a better picture I guess of what I mean

[1930]

Try this one