220 volts ran through one hot wire

[T350Rebel]

I recently tore down all the wiring in my grandfather’s garage he wired himself and i’m genuinely surprised it didn’t burn to the ground after 40+ years, but there’s some things I need some help with. He’s long gone so that’s that. First off, he only had 1 hot wire supplying 220v to his air compressor instead of 2 110v hots like it is normally done, but 70 years ago when the motor was made that’s all it needed to run safely. It runs to a 30A dual throw breaker in the house through buried 10 AWG wire, so that’s overkill for that little motor. Anyone with experience with very outdated equipment like that please give your 2 cents on that, my grandfather was by no means an electrician (neither am I) but at least i’m asking for advice instead of doing it blindfolded

 

[Megawatt]

I recently tore down all the wiring in my grandfather’s garage he wired himself and i’m genuinely surprised it didn’t burn to the ground after 40+ years, but there’s some things I need some help with. He’s long gone so that’s that. First off, he only had 1 hot wire supplying 220v to his air compressor instead of 2 110v hots like it is normally done, but 70 years ago when the motor was made that’s all it needed to run safely. It runs to a 30A dual throw breaker in the house through buried 10 AWG wire, so that’s overkill for that little motor. Anyone with experience with very outdated equipment like that please give your 2 cents on that, my grandfather was by no means an electrician (neither am I) but at least i’m asking for advice instead of doing it blindfolded

We are not going to call your grandfather dumb. Back in the day they did what they had to do to get by. It’s sounds like it is a duel voltage motor and he decided to install 110vac instead of 240 vac. What you need to do is add a panel with 4 wires coming from the main panel to feed it. If possible read the name plate rating Of the motor and probably will need a 20 amp feeding the motor. Number 10 might be an overkill for #10 but that is good for the start up of the motor. Could you please send a picture of the name plate rating of the motor.