snap-on air compressor breaker tripping

by brian wheatley
(cambridge,md)

i have a snap-on compresor made by big red air machines .it is tripping the 30 amp reset button on the compressor while running u can push it back in after a few seconds and it will run again then the same thing .it does not seem to do it on start up because when i push the reset back in it starts running and usally trips towards the end of the cycle .i did take the belt off and let the motor run by itself with no load on it and after about 15 minutes of consistant running tripped the reset while running .this reset is on the compressor it is tripping it but not the breaker in my panel .the motor looks to have 2 capacitors on it not sure if this could be the problem .this problem started compressor doing it once about evry 3 cycles then progressed to now just about every cycle. can u help me out here?thanks

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Bill says...

My first thought on reading your post was perhaps you have a pressure switch problem.

But then I read the part where it trips out with the motor running with no load.

This suggests to me that it might be the run capacitor. I'd get that checked out first.

Cheers,

Bill