Wood Furnace Blower Not Kicking ON - Johnson Energy System J-9900

[nextlevelguy]

I have the J-9900 wood/coal furnace and it has been working fine for years, but last night it would heat up and the blower clicks and then "buzzes/humms" for a minute or so and clicks off and the blower never comes on-

I checked the pins in the back at the "thermostat" and they are around 90 - 140- 200 and have not been touched prior to this problem-
I turned it off then on again... I reset the breaker but still no blower-
What do I need to do?

Most all of my heat is sitting in the basement instead of blowing through the ducts into the house and its single digits and teens here!

Thanks!

 

[john26]

For a temporary fix to get you through the night try disconnecting the wires "thermostat" and connect it to an extenion cord with the end cut off it should run continously. I am not sure what your blower looks like how many speeds, I think black is usually hi and blue and red are med. and low white should be neutral. A multi meter might be helpful to ring the cord out to get polarity right. The box you are calling a "thermostat" sounds like a fan limit switch kicks the blower on and off at set temps. If you wire the motor direct and it rus there is a good chance the fan limit is bad, If it doesn't run wire direct your motor is probably bad. I think the fan limits run $40 - $50 at grainger Hope that helps.

 

[matt701]

You may have burned out one of the speeds on the blower and it wouldn't hurt to try hooking the limit switch to one of the other color wires mentioned above to see if any of the other speeds will work. This is of course if your blower has multiple speeds, if not you may need a new blower. One more thing, with the power disconnected, see if the blower spins or has seized.

 

[nextlevelguy]

Thank you guys for the advice- I took the cover off and there are actually 2 blowers- both of them are single speed- the blades both turn, however one will spin freely and the other only turns as I apply pressure and when I stop it stops.
My next step will to be disconnect them both and test them one at a time to see if one or both of them are bad.

 

[tbsdolmar]

If it has a capacitor on the fan motor then that's your problem.

 

[jking511]

I have the same furnace j-9900 and the same problem. I bought my furnace used and think that the bad blower motor is a replacement because none of the numbers on it match anything I can find on the Johnson Energy System website.
Can you tell me the numbers on your fan motor? Maybe then I can find the right one.
Thanks for your help.
I hope you can find one quickly so you can get your home up to temp before the frigid weekend coming up.

 

[jking511]

If I match the size and hp and shaft to a motor with different numbers will it work?

 

[nextlevelguy]

Hope this helps!!
So this is basically everything I could read... from my cell phone camera that I stuck under the blowers with a flash light! lol! I needed the info also, so I took a bunch of pics this afternoon-
looks like will probably be removing the motors tomorrow- not sure if there is a capacitor yet- I have a friend coming over tomorrow to take a look

these are the numbers on the side of the blower
P/N 367-551
120v, 60hz 2.0 amp

this was on the motor

Type-R Model R22ccw258mda 120v 2.0 amps
60hz 1PH 1/20HP Class B Code B
1545 RPM AOM HI TECH A4-730-025 GE
Thermally Protected RMR Corporation

 

[Gooserider]

The described symptoms sound to me like a blower motor failure - the T-stat attempts to turn it on, the blower tries to start, and doesn't so it sits and hums for a bit until the thermal cutoff pops... You may have burned something out, or it may be a bad / dirty bearing - careful disassembly, cleaning and lubing MAY get you back up and running - however if the bearing is bad, it may just be a temporary fix.

I would confirm using the "suicide cord" described earlier - note the name, and be careful or you will find out why they call it that the hard way...

Of the information shown, the spec label is probably the more important, unless you are likely to get a replacement motor under warranty or equivalent. It is very rare for a motor of this sort to be "custom" - most are pretty generic - if you walk into someplace like Graingers or another motor place like it, and drop the dead motor on the counter saying "I want one of these (Please)" they should be able to match it up easily from the info on the label...

A motor repair shop might be able to fix it for you, but these days it often costs more to diagnose and fix a small motor like that than it does to simply replace it...

Gooserider