Miss-wiring a motor starting capacitor

[Caesium]

Hi all,
I work on some small pump motors some times that don't have any wiring diagrams on them and I was wondering... If one where to hook a start cap up wrong could it damage the motor?

What I mean is on motors like AO Smith you have two yellow wires and a red wire going to the cap. Like this:

L1-------------+
(Yellow)       |
               +-| |----- Config switch (Red)
               |
Winding--------+
(Yellow)

So if one where to hook one of the yellow's to the red side could it damage the motor if it was turned on for few seconds. I know it could/would blow the cap.

Thanks,
Nathan.

 

[mxslick]

Short answer: Yes you can damage the motor (smaller motors are more touchy) or explode the cap. Either one, bad news.

Better to make sure, especially if you are dealing with submersible well pumps where removing and replacing a damaged motor is a very expensive proposition.

 

[Caesium]

What would the failure mode be for the motor?

With the line on the switch side the normal winding would get a phase shift, caps would blow...
With the winding on the switch side they would both get a phase shift, cap would blow...

Not sure if the motor would start ether way. By small pump I mean 1-2hp range by the way.
I'm sure if you left it on it would over heat it.

Thanks.
Nathan.

P.S. Hope you don't mind my aloud pondering.