For the most part, with all the stuff that we're working on okay - and i say this with a caveat for the most part - if it's difficult, you're, making it difficult - okay, there's an easier way, usually now, there's that one every once in a while manufacturer that just I don't know what they the engineer just thinks he doesn't think okay, so it does happen, but most of the time it's pretty easy if you just break it down before we get too far into the video i got ta say something: i got this really cool Email from a gentleman who said that his four and a half year old son watches my videos and really enjoys them. Um, i'm hoping that uh. He said his son. His name is monty monty, i'm hoping that you become a future air conditioning and refrigeration service technician.

It's really cool that you enjoy these videos. I just wanted to say: hey bud! Thank you so much for watching. Okay! Now, let's get into the video here real quick before we go too far, i'm going to be working on an exhaust fan. This exhaust fan is meant to extract or pull out all the unwanted air out of a building.

Now, in this situation, this is a commercial kitchen. They pull out smoke. That's the main reason for the exhaust fan. You can use them in medical, you can use them in scientific.

There can be all kinds of reasons as to why you need to get air out of a building, but in this situation this is a kitchen exhaust fan, let's jump into the video. This video is brought to you by sportlin quality, integrity and tradition. All right today we have an exhaust fan that, while doing another service call yesterday, actually we could hear the motor going bad okay. Now this is a critical exhaust fan for this restaurant and they have to shut down the restaurant if it goes down, so there is no ifs, ands or buts about it.

If there's something going on, it needs to be taken care of asap. So when i heard it using my senses, i told management right away. I went ahead and picked up the motor and we scheduled to come out the next morning. Luckily we had time it was, you know: okay, but there we go.

You can hear the motor itself has bad bearings, okay, so uh, it's not something. That's cost effective to try to replace the bearings. We've got a new motor with us today, so i picked it all up yesterday picked up belts, picked up wire and uh. We're going to go ahead and replace this motor and uh solve this problem before it becomes a situation where the restaurant has to shut down, and then it's an emergency repair.

Okay, so using our senses, we were able to pick up on this. While we were working on this rack, we were changing a fan motor and we were doing some other work so now, with the cover on it's kind of hard to tell where the sound's coming from. So we didn't diagnose it just from the sound okay. This one has a kind of tamper-proof cover right, so we're gon na go ahead and manually turn it back on by manipulating the switch with a screwdriver.

So now that we have the cover off, we can clearly hear that the sound is coming from the motor okay. So we don't just assume right and then we're gon na further prove the problem, so we're gon na shut it off again, okay and then now what we're gon na do we're going to wait for it to power itself down we're going to turn. Take the belts off and then we're going to power it on again and prove that the motor is the problem all right. Now we have the belts off and we can prove that the problem is with the motor okay.

So we're going to go ahead and replace the motor um we have a like for like replacement and then we're also going to replace the pulley and then we'll put new belts on it. We're going to replace this little section of electrical wire right here and then we'll probably grease these bearings over here, because they probably need to be greased, don't see any issues with this pulley right here. This is a fixed pulley, this one's adjustable. Typically, you have issues with adjustable, but you know it's not always that the adjustable pulley is bad, but it's one of those things that i'm going to go ahead and replace it.

It's going to make my labor time go down, but the pulley itself doesn't look too too bad. It has a few small small grooves in it, but it's not absolutely necessary that this be replaced, but again the amount of time it's going to take me to get that off for the cost of a pulley. It's more cost effective, just to put a new one. On and call it a day, even if you're experienced, i always recommend that you take a picture of the wiring colors and the way that they're wired together same thing with the motor.

That way, it's just easier and you don't forget, of course, you're not just going to rely on the picture, but still it always makes sense to go and pay attention to how it's wired. Now we have power isolated at the disconnect switch now just to be safe, because that is kind of a funky disconnect switch. We are actually going to disconnect the wires from here right, so that way, there's no chance of this thing accidentally turning on or anything like that, while we're working on it just to be safe, so we'll just get rid of this whole connector right here and like I said earlier we're going to replace this wire anyways. This particular manufacturer uses this so cord or sj cord.

I don't know which one this is. This is soo cord but anyways. They always use that stuff, and i wanted to kind of go with conduit, but i don't have it and we're kind of in an urgent situation, so we're just going to put back what was in there all right. We've got two people here.

This does help when you have heavy motors okay. Yes, one person could do it, but why hurt yourself customer doesn't mind paying for two people? We bring two people save someone's back. Okay, we've got the motor out now little things guys just little things when you're pulling the bolts out thread the other ones on there. So that way nothing gets lost right.

So we have these two that were just for the um adjustment or tension setting. So those have nothing to go to, but you know kind of keep everything organized that way it makes everything go smoother. So we've got the old motor laid right here. We're going to open up the electrical section.

We've got the new motor over there we're going to get it all ready, get the wiring changed over. So, while we're getting the motor ready, i'm starting on these connectors now, these are uh like strain relief, connectors for so or sj cord, and they can be a little confusing. So you basically want to make sure that you're paying attention to how they're coming apart and then assemble them, just like i did with the nuts for those bolts right there, okay, assemble it back while you're waiting. So that way, when you pull it apart, it just all goes back together.

You know, and you don't really have to think hard. So i'm going to go ahead and prep this cord cut it. A good, sharp knife is always good to have make sure you have a nice one and you can cut that cord and then you know peel it back without damaging any of the wire or anything all right. We have our cord prepped.

Okay, wires are extra long. When i make these, i know that they're going to be cut. Whenever you cut into this kind of cord, you typically will nick the wire on the end. So i only basically cut the end with the knife, and then i pull back the rest of the cord because it'll pull back and then i just know that i need to cut off the ends.

Okay, you want to be very careful about this kind of cord with this kind of jacket and insulation on the wire, because it's really easy to nick and then create a potential spot or a problem right, especially once you get higher in voltage, you can have uh Issues you know like if this was 480 volts. You know that that could jump. I mean it theoretically could jump on 208 too, but you just want to be careful now. This is a multi-volt motor okay, so this one can be 460 or 208 230.

Okay, these motors they typically come wired for the highest voltage that they're rated for now, not always, but that's how they usually come okay. So we have our three phase power right here like right in line one two and three okay, but then you have all this stuff over here: okay, um! Now, if we look right here, low voltage, brown should be going to four orange should be going to five. Okay, if we go right here and we look where's our brown wire, our brown wire is right here and it's going to four okay and our uh. Let's see our orange wire is going to is in edward okay.

So there's something going on here. If you look right here, orange and gray are going to e for the high voltage, so orange and gray are wired together, okay, so this is wired for high voltage. We are not using 460 volts, so we can't just wire these in and assume everything's gon na. Be fine, okay! We we can't just follow the old motor either because this motor, even though it's the same everything it actually, this one has an overload and this one didn't so there's gon na be some stuff, that's different.

In there we have to pay attention. We have to be thorough, don't ever assume okay, so we're gon na rip out every one of these wires and we're gon na follow this low voltage diagram right here and make sure that everything is wired correctly and if you notice on this one we're going to End up having a purple wire, a gray wire and a pink wire coming over to the line voltage side which they're not even over there. Yet so we're going to have to run them over. And if you look, there's a little chase right here for the wires to run through these motors can be overwhelming, but you don't have to let them be.

I mean if you just break it down. Okay, as long as you can see, the numbers and the colors right on the wires just take everything out and then look look at how much easier that is now right. It's not so overwhelming, because there's not wires in the way. So don't let it get to you, you know just break it down, make it simple.

Remember for the most part, with all the stuff that we're working on okay - and i say this with a caveat for the most part if it's difficult, you're, making it difficult. Okay, there's an easier way, usually now, there's that one every once in a while manufacturer that just i don't know what they the engineer just thinks he doesn't think okay, so it does happen, but most of the time it's pretty easy. If you just break it down. It's really not that bad we're all set up.

We've got the wires running through everything where it should be okay, so it doesn't have to be that difficult all right when it comes to the pulleys um. Now we were kind of discussing this before in a perfect world. You should test current on your motor before you replace it on an operating motor okay, but this one had bad bearings. So, theoretically, it would be operating higher than normal currents.

Okay, so you have to cut take that into play. The reason why i'm bringing that up, testing current before is because by adjusting this pulley by changing the width of here, you can slow down and speed up the pulley. Okay, i'm sorry the motor which, in uh in turn, is going to slow down and speed up the exhaust fan. Okay, we don't ever adjust the pulley or the sheave to tension a belt.

Okay. The adjustment there is to change the speed. Okay. Tension is adjusted by pulling motor brackets in and out.

We never adjust the pulley to change tension now. Next being that this is a double groove pulley this one's a little peculiar and that the set screw to tighten it on the shaft. You actually have to take off the top portion. Okay.

Now, when you put the set screw in on that right there, you need to make sure that the keyway, because there's a keyway right here is pushed all the way in as far as it'll go. What you typically want to do is take the set screw out and you want to make sure you can see the keyway, because you want that set screw, hitting the key and not the shaft, okay or not the raceway. I shouldn't called it a keyway, the raceway or the keyway. You want to make sure that the actual key itself is getting hit by the set screw.

Okay - and you always want to set this up to where it's identical to the previous uh pulley, because that's the the speed of the exhaust fans. Okay, all right, we have our belts on here now. They're super loose, okay, the best way this isn't always practical, but the best way to put belts on is with no tension. Okay, when you roll a belt on which i'm not going to say, i never roll belts on, because i do sometimes, but when you roll a belt on, you are stretching the belt out and you're limiting or reducing the life of the belt.

Okay. So, when possible, move your tension screws all the way in make it super loose, put it on then pull tension evenly and test everything out and and tension the belt. Accordingly. Okay, that's best practices, but also understand that there's times and places for that you've got an exhaust fan down.

You know you just got to put a belt on there. Sometimes so you've got to roll it on you got to do what you got to do. Okay, but if you want to make your belts last, you want to tension them properly, using tension tools, making sure everything's good, don't roll them on don't stretch them out, i'm using cogged belts or ax belts, notched belts, whatever you want to call them. I prefer these kind of belts because they let they have the less surface area.

They dissipate the heat better, they don't overheat, they have less tendency to stretching issues and different things like that, so these belts are going to last a lot longer whenever possible. Now, in this situation, i've got two new belts here, because we're doing a whole new set up here and i've got two spares, so we're gon na leave a full set of spares in here too for the next guy. All right, we are all wired back in everything is double checked nice, the tension's good on the belt, everything's cool, we're going to verify proper voltage at the disconnect switch first and then we're going to fire this guy up and test everything. So let's go ahead and see what we got going on here: there's 204.

206. 205.. All right! So we're doing good! There we're going to go ahead and get the uh amp clamp on one of these wires right here and we're going to fire this guy up and test current all right. So we're going to fire this guy up right now and hope it doesn't blow up in our faces all right, so the direction is correct.

All right now we can see from the blower assembly that the direction is correct, but we also want to pay attention to what the manufacturer says. They have rotational arrows on the top and stuff, but this thing should be spinning this direction and then shooting the stuff out the top, and we are okay, so we're looking good there motor operations, good, no funky vibrations. You can clearly hear that the sound the bearing sound is not there anymore. Everything is doing good now on the motor name plate.

It says that we're allowed to run 9.4 amps for 200 volts and 8.9 amps for 230 volts, so we're closer to 200. So we are going to go for the 9.4 amp setting and we are under current at 6.7 amps, so we're good there. That is good, we're gon na. Let it run for a few minutes.

It's always good to let the fans run for a few minutes. Then go back in and make sure that all the set screws are still tight, make sure all the nuts are all still tight, the tension, adjustments and everything you always want to. Let them run for a few minutes, but we're looking good. Everything is back up in operation.

We avoided an emergency situation because we used our senses. When we were here doing another service call, we brought it to the customer's attention. We are not being shady we're, not stealing we're not doing anything, but we generated work by simply doing our job. We were here for another service call.

We heard a funky sound coming from this exhaust fan. We knew it wasn't right. We got them to approve the replacement of the motor and everything is back in operation before it created an emergency situation where the customer had to shut down the restaurant. Imagine that sales without being a shady salesman.

I was there working on something else, and i heard a noise and i brought it up to the customer's attention got approved, got an exhaust fan. Motor change out and all i had to do was go there for another service call see there is the possibility of doing sales and still being ethical right. I'm there doing something else. I notice something isn't right.

I bring it to the customer's attention. I get their approval and they say yeah, please get it done before it becomes an emergency okay. Now, in this particular situation, this customer - i kid you not. If this exhaust fan goes down, they cannot cook anymore.

Okay, there's no redundancy built into this building uh. They have two main exhaust fans, one for half their hood one for the other half of the hood, and this particular one right here shuts down the restaurant if it goes down okay, so it's very critical that we stay on top of things. They do regular preventative maintenances here um well somewhat of a regular. I mean, maybe not as much as i'd like them to do it, but they do a they have a pm schedule.

They have us come out. We were out three months two months prior to this video and it wasn't making noises yet. But here we are, you know we came out to do. Another service call notice that it was making a bearing noise.

We got it swapped out now it's not practical to change the bearings in this situation. Also, you can clearly tell that the motor had been overheating via the data plate. The data plate was orange and tarnished we don't know what damage was done potentially to the windings. In the motor, if there was heat issues or anything like that, so that's why it's just easier.

Just change out the motor! This is just a little three horsepower. It's it's going to take us more time to put bearings in there to find out that the motor's still not working right, just just be done with it. Okay, nothing! Really too crazy! I kind of went into a little bit of detail with the wiring and stuff. You know these things can be overwhelming, especially for someone who's not used to them.

It's really not that difficult. Once you saw, i unwired everything it like makes it so much easier that you can just wire it up wire for wire, and it makes more sense to you. Sometimes that might be easier. Taking pictures of things is very important to make sure that you know how they go back together, checking the rotation when you're done and always following up your motor installation with a current test, making sure that it's not running in an overcurrent situation.

At the same time, paying attention and understanding the control strategy for your motors too, this particular motor has a motor starter down in a cabinet in the kitchen that motor starter is simply a contactor and an overload coupled together to protect the motor. So, in an overload situation, the motor starter theoretically should sense a high current and shut the motor down before it completely disintegrates itself. It doesn't always work that way, but there is safeties downstairs so understanding when you're when you're troubleshooting things, you know the safeties in the way that they're supposed to work really goes a long way. Okay, i really appreciate you guys making it to the end.

As usual. Um, it's just so humbling to to get all the support from you. So thanks so much if you have anything that you need to talk to me about email me at hvacrvideos, gmail.com, it's a great way to contact me remember. I try to do live streams.

Monday evenings 5 p.m, pacific on youtube, on my youtube channel, obviously - and i also go live on the hvac overtime - youtube channel, with my buddies on friday evenings about 605 pm pacific, where we just kind of recap the week hash it out and uh just you know, Talk to each other and just kind of bs, so it's a great hangout yeah! That's really it uh. If you're interested in supporting the channel there's a couple different ways, you guys can do so. My website hvacrvideos.com, we have merchandise available uh. If you want to purchase any tools, go to truetechtools.com, you can use my offer code, big picture.

One word: you get an eight percent discount on checkout. If you shoot me an email, i can generate an affiliate link. I get a little bit of an extra commission when you do that, and you get tools out of it right uh. You can also support the channel via paypal, donations, patreon, youtube, channel memberships, there's it's all in the show notes, there's a bunch of different ways.

The easiest way, though, is literally just watch the beginning or watch the video from beginning to end without skipping through anything. That's the simplest way to support the channel okay. I really appreciate you and we will catch you on the next one. Okay,.