Air Conditioning Unit Wiring

[bk12321 10+ year member]

So a couple of days ago the AC just stopped working out of the blue, and this house is ridiculously hot, so I figured I would see if there was some sort of an easy fix for this problem. Someone ****ed with the electricals and apparently no one here did it.

I know someone is going to say call a technician, but this isn't my house (i'm living with a friend right now while i'm doing some renovating with him), and i'm not paying the bill for it. Also if it's too messed up, I don't plan on touching it myself since i'm by no means an AC unit repairman, but if its just a simple connecting of a couple wires, thats a different story.

I went outside to check out the AC unit, and look what I found:

edit: It looks really ****ed up so I probably won't be touching it, but there has to be some electricians/elec engrs on here so I figure it wouldn't hurt to post it

This is a picture of the whole ordeal, on the left (the big brown wire) are 4 different colored wires coming out of the house inside of the big brown one, on the right are 2 wires coming out of the AC unit (1 yellow 1 brown) that were apparently connected to SOMETHING at one point.

On the left side of the next picture, the red wire is frayed, and there are a couple of exposed wires (a white one, a blue one, and 1 or 2 more that arent exposed).

On the right side, there is a white and a red wire, the rest are bent back.

And here's a picture of the wires coming out of the AC unit again.

Click to read more...

 

[Zxcvtypo 10+ year member]

was there another unit or box that those wires connected to that's no longer there //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

 

[fbi90909 5,000+ posts]

shut off power at breaker and reconnect each wire?

 

[bk12321 10+ year member]

was there another unit or box that those wires connected to that's no longer there //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

Some of the wires are bent back like they werent being used by whoever installed it, I assume kinda like a wiring harness for a cd player, but most likely no box. According to everyone at this house nothing was touched and it was working 4 or 5 days ago, so I dont see how something like that could just disappear.

 

[bk12321 10+ year member]

shut off power at breaker and reconnect each wire?

I was planning on trying that eventually but I wanted to hear from someone who knows what theyre doing, which color wires I should try to connect to what, etc etc.

 

[fbi90909 5,000+ posts]

well... just to be safe from causing any further damage, might want to call a mechanic.

 

[94Mazda626 10+ year member]

If you can take the cover off the side of the AC unit and take a pic of the inside, make sure you turn off the breaker first. Also what kind of furnace is in the house, is it a mid or high efficient?

There should be a relay under the cover with the power wires going to the main contacts and two of the small wires going to the coil of the relay. The small wires are just a 24 volt signal from your furnace to turn on the relay, and 240 volt on the other wires.

 

[94Mazda626 10+ year member]

I should tack on that I am a journeyman electrician, if your not comfortable with this make sure you call someone or post up any more questions.

 

[Twistid 5,000+ posts]

i think a crackhead stole yo shit (whatever piece of equipment is now missing)

 

[Twistid 5,000+ posts]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=hvac+wiring

i pwn

 

[ToyTundra 10+ year member]

once you open up the unit you will realize how simple it is inside.

Power in

turn on signal

contactor

delay on break timer

Start capacitor(s)

compressor + fan

I fixed mine knowing nothing about how the unit works

 

[bk12321 10+ year member]

Going out of town to Boone tonight, but I will post back in here tomorrow whenever I can get in it and poke around and snap a couple pics

Just letting you guys know I didn't kill myself on one of those 240v wires today lol

 

[edzy 10+ year member]

Connect red to brown, the white to yellow.

 

[regal8r 5,000+ posts]

someone probably jacked the freon too //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

 

[bk12321 10+ year member]

Hell yea, finally had some free time off work today so I went outside and fixed it.

Finally have air conditioning yessssssssss. You guys are awesome