[Sun Devil]

My ceiling fan has a large light fixture which somehow became unscrewed from the hollow stud that hangs from the motor housing. This caused the weight of the fan to be entirely on the wires that connect the switch(es) to the motor.
Long story short, the wires that connect directly to the stator coils are severed. I need to resolder them to the coils, but I don't know which wire goes to which stator coil lead. There are two leads on each of the two coils. There is an outer coil and an inner coil and each of these has an outer and inner wire with respect to the center of the stator.

Can anyone help? There are 4 wires: Orange, Red, Yellow, and Purple. Is there a conventional color scheme that will help me match these up to the appropriate coil leads: Outer coil-outer lead, outer coil-inner lead, inner coil-outer lead, inner coil- inner lead.
Shown here is a picture of my stator and wires, as well as a picture of a similar fan motor I found on the internet with similar wires connected.

 

[Ron6519]

Contact the fan's manufacturer and see if they have a wiring diagram. It might help if you mentioned which fan you have.
Ron

 

[Scuba_Dave]

That's quite a bit of copper in there !!

 

[Sun Devil]

Ceiling fan manufacturer

Contact the fan's manufacturer and see if they have a wiring diagram. It might help if you mentioned which fan you have.
Ron

Yeah, I tried that first, and didn't have any luck. They didn't have a diagram that could be read or sent to me. They basically said I'd have to send it in to them for the repair. For soldering 4 wires, I'd rather keep it myself and save the hassle and cost of mailing a very heavy motor and light fixture.

 

[Ron6519]

Buy another fan, take it apart to see what goes where and fix yours. Put the other fan back together and return it.
Ron

 

[Sun Devil]

Haha, that's not a bad idea...
Why didn't I think of that? I've got like 3 or 4 more of these in the house.

Way to think practically Ron.

 

[rjniles]

Buy another fan, take it apart to see what goes where and fix yours. Put the other fan back together and return it.
Ron

Why not just take the motor from the new fan and send back the old one? NOT!
I don't think suggesting something as unethical as this is in the spirit of this forum. This drives the costs of products up for all of us.

 

[Chemist1961]

SD, Don't want to shoot you down, but there will be very little slack in that copper and it is coated with insulating varnish. In a heavier duty motor with two windings directly oposite you could actually unwind one loop per side to give yourself some slack and keep the fields similar resistance. In this case it does not appear you will be so lucky. You will need to clean the varnish off in order to solder and the wire is generally very fragile. Best of luck ....

 

[Chemist1961]

Sorry cut myself short....The unwinding I mentioned was on the stator.

 

[Sun Devil]

SD, Don't want to shoot you down, but there will be very little slack in that copper and it is coated with insulating varnish. In a heavier duty motor with two windings directly oposite you could actually unwind one loop per side to give yourself some slack and keep the fields similar resistance. In this case it does not appear you will be so lucky. You will need to clean the varnish off in order to solder and the wire is generally very fragile. Best of luck ....

Thanks Chemist,
I was actually wondering how those wires were insulated... they were all bundled together inside a cloth-like braid. I thought it strange that there was nothing in between the leads. So even if I could solder these together again, could I just individually wrap them in some other insulator? Maybe some small diameter shrink sleeves?

 

[Chemist1961]

Fine motor wiring often has the cloth like braid protecting an inline crimp terminal where it meets the power lead. This is an insulating sleeve similar to heat shrink.
You may also find a small fuse link at one of these joints .
If you can pull it off, suggest you stagger your joints to avoid a bulge but try to mainatin the same total length as originals.

 

[Ron6519]

Why not just take the motor from the new fan and send back the old one? NOT!
I don't think suggesting something as unethical as this is in the spirit of this forum. This drives the costs of products up for all of us.

I just suggested he use another fan as a wiring example since the manufacturer couldn't be bothered with sending a customer a wiring diagram so he could fix it.
You're the one who suggested bad behavior.
When I'm in need of a moral compass, I'll let you know.
Ron