AO Smith Air Compressor Won’t Start

Need some input on figuring why compressor won’t start.

Bought a brand new but never used air compressor from an individual, three years old, never hooked up. They bought it for their home shop before adding electricity, finally got power out there and decided to go larger. It’s a 60 gallon, oiled, AO Smith 208-240V, 15 amp motor, whole compressor was still in the plastic wrap on the pallet with tags hanging from it. Stored in a dry shop the whole time.

Ran a new dedicated 20 amp circuit, 12/2, decided to use an outlet and pigtail in case I wanted to use the circuit for something else. Wired it up, turned it on for the break in procedure for 30 minutes with drain valve open, turned it off. Closed the valve, turned it back on about 15 minutes later, filled up the tank and cut off at the correct pressure, 150psi, seemed to run flawlessly both times. Hooked up a blow nozzle and started to release air, wanted to see if it kicked back on at the low setting (90psi), never did, I bled all the air out.

Thought there might be an issue with the pressure switch, checked all the connections, checked for power coming to the switch, got 120v on each leg, so there is power getting to the switch. Then bypassed the switch by wiring straight to the motor, (just to check it, was not going to let it run to fill the tank), nothing. Power is going to the motor but nothing happening. No hum, no click, nothing. Unplugged it to see if the the pump flywheel would spin freely, spins fine, no locking up or anything.

So now I’m thinking it may be something with the starting circuit on the motor? No idea why that would go bad after two starts but not sure what else it could be?

Thoughts and suggestions welcome.
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See the page on checking a capacitor, and check your start cap.

Bill