dryer fan kicking breaker

[Jimmy Buffett]

The dryer breaker on my softgloss is kicking every time it tries to start the motor. Any idea what I should be looking for?
Thanks
J

 

[RykoPro]

So you have on board dryers? If you are lucky it might be the wire terminations in the motor junction box. If you find burnt wires in the j box repair them properly and test.
It could be the motor itself, a blown fuse, termination, cable, contactor or overload. It sounds like you have lost a phase somewhere in the system or the motor is shorting out. Since it trips right away there is less need to check the amp draw. I would check for voltage on each leg at the overload. If you are missing any leg there, check on each side of the contactor.

 

[Jimmy Buffett]

Mark,
Looks like the contactor is fried. It is stuck in and that is not good. Of course I don't have 1 so I'm shut down till ups gets here in the morning. I hope that is all it is. The motor is straining to start but can't. I don't see any water leaking into the motor but I'll check it tomorrow when it's running. Thanks!

 

[MEP001]

If it can be done without a huge amount of trouble, you might get some lugs and bypass the contactor to be sure the motor is ok, otherwise you risk toasting the replacement contactor.

Check the connections at the motor itself too - they should be connected with lugs and not wire nuts. I had a dryer motor tripping the thermal overload because the idiot who wired it used undersized wire nuts and didn't even tighten them well.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

JB, I'm very disappointed in you. You have a farm and you can't come up with a solution other than shutting down the wash. I'm assuming that you have the dryer only on the top one or two washes. Make a little note to stick on the ACW stating that the top two washes are out of order and yank a wire off each of those two switches so no one can pick them. And you call yourself a car wash guy!

 

[Jimmy Buffett]

I almost called you today for some words of wisdom. I wasn't sure how the contactor was attached in the back and I mistakenly took out the two tiny little bolts on the front. When I pulled on it all of the contactor guts went everywhere so I had some loose wires going on. It was raining anyway. Truth be told I was better off before I started "fixing" it.