Hi:
Our A/C stopped working the other day, I think we have a deeper problem with the control wiring or thermostat since I believe what caused this is the unit was running around the clock whether the system was calling for A/C or not, but now the damage may be done.
Now the fan works fine, the system comes on fine when we turned on, but I don't believe the compressor is coming on or at least it's not working properly. It does get hot (waiting for it to cool down right now to do more troubleshooting). I opened up the area that contains the control wiring and there is what appears to me to be a capacitor and it looks in pretty rough shape. The casing has broken open a bit and is rusted badly.
Here is a picture:
I've done a little research and there are a multitude of things that can cause a compressor to fail and pretty much the only thing I'm comfortable fooling with by myself is swapping out this capacitor. So the question is, even if the capacitor is bad, would it even help replacing it? Why would the compressor get hot if the capacitor wasn't helping it start in the first place? Also, is there anything else easy I could check into?
The system is an old Westinghouse model, I've accepted that I'm probably going to have it replaced but if I could get a couple of weeks out of it now I could at least do this on my own terms and not buy something under pressure.
It's Sunday so i can't get a new capacitor today, so I thought I'd ease my mind by asking some questions. Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.