Somewhere in this thread was a question about the reasons for delayed motor starts. Besides the need for refrigerant pressure equalization, as discussed above, there is also the need to limit a motor's exposure to full line voltage starts.
The larger the motor, the more restrictive, and the...
If you have a lot of other motors or electric loads to maintain, you may want to consider a clamp on power meter. These look and work like ordinary multifunction clamp meters, but as the name implies, they also measure power directly. They do this by measuring current (with the clamp part) and...
You may want to have a spare motor nearby. Your overheating motor w/no load may have a problem with the rotor, possibly an open or defective bar in the squirrel cage winding. Or, there could be another magnetic defect. If the rotor is defective, an induction motor can do strange things...