hello all, iv been browsing the forum for a while and thought id ask for a small bit of help with my current project.

for a couple of months iv been hording three washing machine motors. (one is still in the washing machine haha)

today i decided to start my first project, while i have several ideas and uses for them for the purpose of this i will start with a polisher.

both motors i have are labeled he same, MCA 52/64, for the purpose of this i will now refer to them as motor a & B

i have had both motors running @ 12v and motor B @ 240v

using this i found on another forum

"Plus terminal of battery to black wire.
Brown wire to gray wire
Blue wire to negative side of battery.
Assuming it runs, check to see if you are getting a voltage signal from the red wires."

i have figured out how to switch the direction of both motors, i do this by switching the brown and black wires, so black goes to grey and brown goes to live

Motor A has a different amount of wires, both the same color, which appear to do nothing! this motor i can only get one speed

Motor B i am able to change the speed by switching the blue for an orange that is also on the motor,


Motor A has wires that doesn't seam to do any thing, is it possible the speed was adjusted in a different manor?



so my questions, would it be safe to wire the motor to a house hold light switch or would this be too much load for it? also i there a safe and cheap way of controlling the speed, a commonly available potentiometer maybe?

and last electrical is there any simple way of wiring a switch to change the direction?





mechanically can the small pulley be removed from the spindle of the motor? i plan on putting the taper shaft for the polishing mop direct on the end of the motor


hope this all makes sense and that some one can help