need quick advice

Techy

hot and ground will read 120v, hot to neutral will read 120v, neutral to ground will read close to 0

a7ecorsair

You are making too much out of this. If there was a safety issue the manufacturer would have more than just L1 & L2 for ID.
Connect your incoming black wire to L1 and the incoming white to L2 and be done with it.

funkjosh

whoa!

micromind

There's no electrical test that will reveal which wire goes to the overload. The only way to be completely certain is to disassemble the motor and look at where each wire goes.

The reality is that if they're reversed, the only difference is that the overload will break the neutral instead of the hot. Since all of this is contained inside the motor, it doesn't matter.

Rob.

funkjosh

what i was referring to were the three wires coming out of the service box that hooked up to the motor. (btw, this is an outdoor pool pump service im talking about)

a7ecorsair

That is what I was referring to in post #17.
L1 & L2 are on the motor
Black and white come from the junction box.

funkjosh

motor #1 came back from servicing and was told it was shot (he said it was grounded). i have another motor #2 that im going to see if hell mount (if it runs). however motor #2 is designed for 230v. what needs to be done to wire this back up considering it is a 120v service. (i believe motor #2 was hooked up once before on this service so i know the power is there)