What direction should an emerson northwind spin?

[Jeff Jones]

I've been working on a northwind for someone this past weekend.  Got it running but it's blowing backwards. Blade is spinning counter clockwise.  Is that correct and the blade is wrong or did someone reverse the stator at some point?  This fan was a basketcase.  So it wouldn't surprise me if the stator is in backwards too... the wiring was terrible...I ended up having to redo all of it. It's also possible they had it wired wrong...I just redid all the connections but I'm wondering now too if they're wrong.  

Does anyone happen to know the Ohms for which wires are brushes and which are line? It's entirely possible they've got that mixed up too.  

[Mark Olson]

The motor should turn clockwise looking at the shaft end, but if you look at it from the back, it should turn counterclockwise.

It is a matter of perspective. It turns opposite of Westinghouse fans.

[Jeff Jones]

Ok it is definitely backwards then...its counter clockwise from the front..and blade is blowing reverse.  

[Chris Campbell]

Try swapping wires to brushes

[Jeff Jones]

Would swapping the brushes side for side accomplish the same thing?  I tried that last night no change, still spun backwards.  I even tried it om dc...and flipping the plug didn't matter either. 

[Mark Olson]

No, you will need to reverse the polarity from what it is now to the brushes being 180 degrees from the field. Just swapping the brushes themselves will not accomplish that.

[Jeff Jones]

I meant I switched the brush holders from side to side...meaning I put the right one on the left and left on the right.  Wouldn't that accomplish the same as swapping the wires? 

[Mark Olson]

12 minutes ago, Jeff Jones said:

I meant I switched the brush holders from side to side...meaning I put the right one on the left and left on the right.  Wouldn't that accomplish the same as swapping the wires? 

Yes, that would accomplish the same thing. My experience has been when a universal or DC motor only turns one way is that the armature has bad spots/opens in it. YMMV

[Jeff Jones]

It definitely did have at least 2 open windings. I attempted to repair them. And thought I was successful but maybe not.  Prior to reporting those I had open segments...now it checks out ok on the meter..each segment to segment reads around the same Ohms. 

 

Could the brush wires and line power be mixed up?  Like did the previous person mis wire it?  Would that cause this or would it just not run at all?

[Jeff Jones]

Are these universal motors and as such does the line go to each field and a brush to the other end of each field?  Or is it series wound..meaning 1 end of line goes to a brush, then the 2 fields are connected together, then to the other brush with the other line to the 2nd field?