A plea for help with the 56 GE LW-11 refrigerator

[turquoisedude]

I am getting nowhere fast with that poor ol' GE wall refrigerator of mine.... Since it went 'off the air' in January,  I have been hoping to find some service information about it that might help me - I have found manuals for just about all the GE dishwashers I own and a GE washer I will own soon, but nothing on the refrigerator.     A fellow member, Steved, was kind enough to post this wiring diagram and some testing instructions that helped me a great deal. 

 

I found that I had a bad resistor and I was very worried about the condition of the wiring to the condensor fan motor.  

 

[turquoisedude]

By pure luck,  I found this original GE replacement for the resistor (not the exact 1956 model, but the correct part number)

 

It is rated 9 ohms,  just in case anyone else ever runs into trouble with a similar fridge!

 

[turquoisedude]

While I did sucessfully test the original condensor fan motor,  I severely damaged the wiring when I removed it from the refrigerator.   The wiring was so incredibly brittle and inflexible, I figured it had to be replaced....  Trouble was that I couldn't (and neither could my favourite motor repair place) figure out how to open the case - the motor housing seemed to be one piece. 

 

Well, my motor place said 'Oh, we have a replacement for this motor' and they ordered it for me.  After a three-week delay (they thought I was picking it up the next day...Oy!) I picked this up. 

 

So, what's wrong with this picture?? 

 

Yes, you guessed it...  This is a one-phase 110v motor.    The original GE motor was a two-phase 75/110v.... 

 

I have been told that there is a way to use a 110v motor with this kind of refrigerator, but I  really don't know enough about refrigerators and relays and how they work to be comfortable messing with this. 

 

If anyone can help me out here,  please let me know.... 

 

If not,  I do have leads on not one, but two wall-mounted models in upstate NY....

 

[maytagmark]

Are you able to get the compressor to start without the fan connected?,If not I'd check the thermal overload protector,This was a common problem when I worked on a/c,s and fridges. You should be able to use this new fan motor,By looking at the diagram the middle wire of the old one is going to the thermal overload,This I'm not sure but it could be to change the speed of the fan while the compressor is in overload, The new one should work connected to terminal 1 and 3, You could check the voltage at the terminals to see if they are correct. This is just what I would do. You should get a second or third opinion just to be sure. Hope you get it going.

 

[turquoisedude]

Here's exactly what happened:

- I found the refrigerator had not been running for a couple of days - it looked like the overload protector had tripped.  I unplugged the machine and let it cool for a few hours.   On attempting to restart it,  the compressor sounded as if it was starting, but there was a click and the machine shut off.  I figured this was the overload protector. 

- first diagnosis led me to believe the condensor fan was not running and this was why the machine failed to start.  I did test the fan (using a capacitor to provide the second phase of power it needed) and the fan did run. 

- It was then I spotted that the original resistor had a burnt or corroded wire.

 

Since then, I haven't tried any tests other than to do continunity tests on the motor windings - all looked good. 

 

If I was to connect the replacement resistor but not the fan,  is it possible the compressor might run again??  

 

Forgive the naive questions, but I know very little about refrigerators and anything with a relay has always confused the heck out of me!!

 

[maytagmark]

All good questions

The next thing I would do is bypass the overload protector for just a moment to see if the compressor will start,these things fail esp. at this age, If the compressor is cool it will do no harm to run it without the fan connected,If it starts and runs I'd replace the overload protector, and if it doesn't they make a hard start kit that provides a capacitor for older compressors that need an extra boost.

 

[turquoisedude]

This weekend, I tried to test the compressor but I had no idea as to how to bypass the overload protector... What I did was to just connect the new resistor and power the fridge up.

Unfortunately, nothing happened. There was a click, but nothing else. This is quite odd because with no resistor and the old two-phase fan hooked up the compressor did attempt to start, but then something clicked and and it stopped. The condensor fan did not start, but I did make it run by after disconnecting it and hooking up a capacitor...

I am really discouraged now and I have a less-than-thrilled partner who is pushing me to start thinking about renovating the kitchen again to accomodate a standard refrigerator. The only other alternative I can come up with is to try and find a replacement wall refrigerator. I know of one in Rochester, but it's in bad shape.

Oy, what to do???