My table saw motor (3 horsepower on Jet JTAS-10 cabinet saw) quit working this week, and after reading several threads here and elsewhere, I believe the problem is a bad start capacitor. After reading those threads, I'm also more nervous about taking it off to get and install a replacement!
I have a couple questions before I take it off. Unlike all the examples I've seen, the motor wires on mine are screwed to the capacitor terminals so I can't just pull them off with pliers w/o touching the metal terminals. Can I just unscrew them one at a time without causing any problems? Do I have to discharge the capacitor first or just take it off and put the plastic cover on for safety (and not discharge it at all)? If needed, I've seen conflicting opinions on whether to discharge with a large screwdriver or with a resistor. This seems like a large capacitor compared to most of the examples I've seen (600 mfd). Thoughts knowing the size of it? Thanks in advance for the help - I like to err on the side of caution (and I couldn't convince my neighbor to take it off for me so i'm going to do it)!