AA260 "Reinstall" Wiring Issue

Long story short, husband and I are on AA260 #3 in 3 years. First two found a crack in them end of season. Last year had the entire system newly wired in by a technician. Just picked up a new to us 260 and plumbed it in. I rewired the new exactly the same as the previous. The issues: #1 Blower motor will kick on, fan runs for a bit then seizes and motor gets hot. #2 Main circulator runs very very little on a call for heat, (haven't checked the other circ.) The differences from last setup: New to us 260 came with two practically brand new motors. #1 Using the aquastat that came with new 260 (L8124) previously had a digital hydrostat 3250? that melted when a fire built up into the auger last season but everything is wired exactly the same. #2 Actually using the motor for the auger, last season we had a motor burn up so we used a manual gearbox with the belt figure 8 to the blower motor. #3 I apparently have no clue how to wire a motor, blower motor says it has red and black wires, it actually has blue, black and white, wires from system for previous motor are white and black so obviously I wired the black to black and white to white, can only assume that stroke of genius is what's causing the fan to do next to nothing. Noticed this motor does not have a red button like the other three usable blower motors I have, so I can only guess I should probably use one of those before I burn the house down. So for now keeping the system shut off until adjustments are made, using electric baseboards and fireplace instead. Any suggestions? I've called every electrical place around and all are booked for weeks.

Wow... I hate to state the obvious but I would say that you are in desperate need of someone that is familiar with how the AA works and knows how to wire it. Common HVAC techs that maintain natural gas, fuel oil an propane furnaces/boilers likely aren't gonna have a clue. These machines are built like tanks to last decades and I can't even imagine how you've cracked 2 of them in 3 years. I've never seen or heard about a fire going up into the transfer head. I don't even know how that could happen..

911 here fellas...

Where are you located?
Perhaps a forum member could come and help you..

Oh, I just noticed in your profile..
120 miles from me..

The cracks i can only assume were pre-existing, two of the 260's were here when we bought the house, and the previous owner we later found out had picked them up from a junk yard and he had had a real rigging up of wiring and parts, which is actually how the fire built up into the head, we realized when we switched shells last season that the first 260 was missing a ton of parts, however we didn't even think to check the second shell for cracks. The tech that wired it last year is actually very knowledgeable with the brand, but as I said everyone is now booked, tis the season. We didn't have any issues last season with the new wiring, the blower motor this year is my fault, going to try out one of the other motors that actually has a wiring diagram. The main thing that doesn't make sense is the circulator not doing the right thing, seeing how it's wired exactly the same and nothing else in our system has changed.

Wow, you have a lot going on there. Have you verified that the auger and fan bearings are in good shape? It is possible that you installed a motor with pre-existing issues, but also possible something else is wrong that is overloading the motor.

The circulator is likely shutting off quickly because the boiler temperature is dropping below the low limit setting of the aquastat.

Auger seems good and the motor attached to that seems to be good, doesn't get hot or have any power issues. The fan spins freely by hand, as I mentioned previously I'm positive I'm just a dolt in the wiring of the motor that came with it since it is different than the ones we have. It doesn't have the pre wired button like the other motors we have for that and I assume that is probably a necessary feature. I just assumed since the previous owner used the motor without the button and it was functioning that it was good. But we know what assuming does. The hi is set at 180 and the low at 150 with a 10 differential. Circulator kicks on around 150 and shuts off around 160 but doesn't always kick on when at 150, hard to tell with the gauge (I was spoiled with the digital aquastat simply telling me the numbers.) Connected into c1 and zc for the circulators.

Here's the wiring diagram. I would not use the timer and yours might have a single aquastat rather than a triple aquastat. All neutral connections (White) get tied together and Hot to the motor should come from the Hi Limit aquastat (L4006A or L6006A).

It sounds like you might have put a bad motor on. When using used motors I always wire them up to a plug and test run them for a while.

It also sounds like you might have a bad pump. You can wire a plug to the pump and plug it into an extension cord. It should run constantly, if it doesn't, it's bad.

-Don

Thanks! We aren't using a timer at the moment, haven't found it necessary yet. I'll test the circulator and use one of the new motors and see what we got.

I’d put a bucket under that valve next to pump and flush out any settled debris first. Pumps hate debris. Make sure your make up water valve is open for a good flush.

You could also have a bad aquastat. I sent you a pm. Depending on location I might be able to swing out and take a look at things for you. Check your motors as well like Don said. It is possible you have a bad one.
Jason

It's alive!! Thanks everyone for the help and suggestions. Just an update: Circulators are good, the pressure/temperature gauge is bad, pressure side works but the temperature side goes up and doesn't go back down, which was causing us to think the circulator should have been running. Motor was in fact bad, really odd, it was supposedly installed on the 260 on 4-20-20 but we wired another motor on and no problems. Realized we're missing the part that kicks back to the solenoid that stops the asher arm and of course the one on our other 260 is welded on at the pin. So until I can order a new one we're gonna grind the other one off and put a bolt through.