Hello,

I have a 240v single phase motor used in a table saw but dont have a wiring diagram for it. The motor has 4 cables - 2 blue, 1 black, and 1 brown. One of the blue cables and the black cable are tied together. The resistance between the blue and brown wire is 15 ohm. Between the blue/black and brown is 5 ohm. For the saw itself, there's a cord with a blue, brown, and green wire. The green is earth. There's also a large cap that i assume goes in series with 2 of the wires but i'm not sure which. Could anyone shed some light on how i could figure out the right way to hook this up?

 

Separate the blue/black and determine if you have two separate resistances of 15 and 5, a normal 1ph motor would have the 15 ohm connected across the supply L1 & L2, and one end of the 5 ohm would be connected to one of these, say L1, the other end of the 5 ohm would go to the cap and the other lead of the cap would go to L2.
To reverse the motor, swap any L1 L2 pair.
Max.

 

I noticed I goofed in the resistances, it is the 5 ohm that should be across L1 & L2 and vice versa for the 15 ohm (start winding).
Max.

 

I seperated the blue and black. The black has 5ohm and the blue has infinite resistance. Could you clarify what is L1 and L2? I don't have any tranformers or inductors.

 

L1/L2 is the 240vac conductor supply.
Without the cap, you would normally see two coil values on the separated wires, the 5Ω and 15Ω .
Max.

 

I'm sorry, i'm not completely following you. I understand the L1/L2 now, but the cap is currently disconnected and i still don't see resistance on the blue wire. Also, i only have one connection available for the 5 ohm so i cant connect it to both terminals of the conductor. Could you maybe attach a drawing? Sorry, as you cna tell, i have no expeeience with ac motors

 

Google Split Phase motor, and also here.
http://www.usmotors.com/Connections/Connections.htm
One (run) winding is connected directly across the supply, the other (start) winding is connected across the supply in series with a capacitor, you may have a normally closed centrifugal switch internally to disconnect the motor when up to speed.
Max.