Can I wire up a fan motor that I took off my outside AC unit to an extension cord plug it in to be a fan to blow air for my shop no capacitor nothing just the fan motor
1 Answer
If the fan motor used a capacitor (most do) in the outside unit, you need it. You can find it on the wiring diagram (which should be inside the housing, or search online by make/model). You should also be able to find it by looking in the outside unit's control wiring, provided you're good at tracing wires. There will always be either a pair of capacitors or a dual-capacitor for the compressor motor; if there's another instance of either, that would likely be for the fan.
As for the extension cord idea, it's a bad one. Powering an extension cord with 240V coming from a 30-50A breaker and no GFCI presents lethal risks (especially if you use 120V connectors, with possibility of mistakingly plugging in a 120V appliance). And as @crip659 noted, they're designed and permitted by code for temporary use only. You can make it safe, but it will probably cost you more than a new 120V fan (even a big one).