# Help with wiring a motor



## trav007 (Jan 25, 2008)

Hello, I have a dual voltage motor that I want to run on 240. It is currently set up as 120 but it draws too much current. On the wiring plate it shows (for 240)

#1 ------- line

#236 ------- tare

#45 -------- line

(or something similar)

I believe the tare refers to neutral and the line is 120 v each.

My supply line is 4 wire with 2 hot, 1, neutral and a ground. I just want to be sure that I am correct before I hook it up. Thank you.


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## woodchuck2 (Feb 27, 2008)

Never heard of Tare in the electric glossary but it does mean to balance so i would go with that.


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## B.Scott (Feb 1, 2013)

All my single phase 220 motors have just the two 110 leads and a ground. No neutral. 

I'd wait to hear from someone that knows for sure before wiring it. 

Bob


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## woodchuck2 (Feb 27, 2008)

B.Scott said:


> All my single phase 220 motors have just the two 110 leads and a ground. No neutral.
> 
> I'd wait to hear from someone that knows for sure before wiring it.
> 
> Bob


Or may have one lead as Line and the other lead is neutral for 120v or line for 240v. Motors vary. Just never heard of Tera before. Sometimes it seems a guessing game, the last step up transformer i installed and wired did not show a connection for neutral although i knew it needed one. I ended up going to an old timer in town who retired many moons ago and asked him since he was once an electrician. He looked at my diagram for awhile and he too guessed where the neutral would go, then he said the most that will happen is it will trip the breaker. I was like alrighty then, nervously I tried it an it worked.


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## Leo G (May 12, 2005)

How is it wired for 120?


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## B.Scott (Feb 1, 2013)

Woodchuck,

All my 220 single phase motors are 220. Two lines of 110 Volts. No neutrals. 

Neutral is only needed with 110 on my stuff. That has a standard kitchen blender type plug. Can't be plugged into a 220 recept.

Your post brings another idea to mind.

You say you never heard of "Tera"
His post had the word "tare". I'm guessing your spell checker did that but if his motor does read Tera and he just misread or misspelled it that could be the info he needs. 

"Tera" is Latin for earth or "ground"!

Bob


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## B.Scott (Feb 1, 2013)

Just to add

I'm a carpenter not an electrician so get other info on this before plugging in. 

My comments assume a motor plugged directly into a wall plug.

If this motor is on a machine (probably is) then there is likely control wiring(switches, starters etc...). Some of these may require 110v and would need the neutral for that. 

In other words the motor uses the two 110 lines and the ground for safety, but the magnetic switch may have a 110v coil that needs the neutral to start and run the motor. All that would plug in using your four prong plug. 

Kind of like a range in a house. The 220 runs the burners and 110 with The neutral runs the clock so your wife knows when to take the roast out. LOL..... The ground is for safety in case there's stray electricity. 

More details and the electricians may be able to help. 

Bob


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## WarnerConstInc. (Jan 30, 2008)

All the dual voltage single phase motors I have had, only had 4 leads. 

No neutrals on them, even for the start stops on them.


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## Leo G (May 12, 2005)

It depends on the speed of the motor. The lower the speed the more coils it'll have and more wires.


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## woodchuck2 (Feb 27, 2008)

B.Scott said:


> Woodchuck,
> 
> All my 220 single phase motors are 220. Two lines of 110 Volts. No neutrals.
> 
> ...


I misspelled the word by accident. I never gave it a thought to look up the Latin meaning of it, but the definition i found was "to balance" which is what a neutral does in a 240v circuit.


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## trav007 (Jan 25, 2008)

Here is a picture of the offending motor. Also, I should note that I only have a neutral due to the fact that in order to supply 220 to this motor I have to run it off a generator which has a four pole twist lock plug. The original wiring has the ground to the machine and 2 hots and a neutral as well.


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## Railman (Jan 19, 2008)

The three tare wires would just be wire nutted together. 4+8 to one line, & 1 would be the other line.

Joe


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## Leo G (May 12, 2005)

Just wire it like it says

1 goes to the line plug

4 and 8 go to the other line on the plug

3, 5 and 2 get tied together and taped off. Good to go.

Ground to the motor housing or body of the device.


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## B.Scott (Feb 1, 2013)

Agreed


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## Railman (Jan 19, 2008)

Dam Leo, your slippin!
I'm usually the one that gets beat out!

In the tare terminoligy, I'm thinkin it one of those famous Taiwan misspellings for "tape". I can't find an appropriate def for tare in this use.
Joe


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## Leo G (May 12, 2005)

You wrote less than me.:whistling


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## Railman (Jan 19, 2008)

Less is more!


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## Leo G (May 12, 2005)

You didn't mention grounding :whistling


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## Railman (Jan 19, 2008)

Well I guess grounding is important, but if you want to be thorough, you might mention that there's no neutral to wiring it 220, as he suggested in his first post.


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## Leo G (May 12, 2005)

I knew there was no neutral to be on the motor. But, if you have a 4 wire system I don't know if you tie the neutral and the ground together, so I didn't mention it. Pretty sure that is what you do if you have a new 4 wire system and need to wire it up to an 3 wire range.


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## trav007 (Jan 25, 2008)

Thanks guys, now that I look at the diagram again i feel like I need someone to slap me in the back of the head. :thumbsup:

It all makes sense now


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## Leo G (May 12, 2005)

If you were closer I'd take you up on that :laughing:


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## B.Scott (Feb 1, 2013)

Railman said:


> Well I guess grounding is important, but if you want to be thorough, you might mention that there's no neutral to wiring it 220, as he suggested in his first post.


It you really want to be thorough you need to find out what this motor does and walk him through the switching. 

If it was 110 do you need a double pole switch to convert to 220?

Bob


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## WarnerConstInc. (Jan 30, 2008)

Leo G said:


> It depends on the speed of the motor. The lower the speed the more coils it'll have and more wires.


Well this one looks like a 2 pole, most of mine were 4 poles and had less wires.

I have 6 and 8 pole motors with only 3 leads.....


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## jamesgr81 (Feb 14, 2012)

It doesn't say tare....it says tape as some have suggested. The windings are connected in series for 240 volts, parallel for 120 volts. Has nothing to do with number of poles. 

The number of poles is is not the same as the number of windings. Since the speed of this motor is 3600 - slip approx 3450 rpm it is a two pole motor. 

If you look at the stator field windings you will see many slots and sets of windings. The way they are connected is determined by manufacture.


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## DuMass (Feb 6, 2008)

I notice the motor nameplate says 60Hz, I always thought Canada was all 50Hz?


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