Refrigerator repair help

[blazerbrad]

Any experienced appliance repair guys out there?

Compressor sporadically will stop (no cooling) and then will eventually restart anywhere from maybe 1-2 hours later. This appears that the compressor overload is tripping and it will reset after it cools down enough. I've verified every other part of the system is working fine except for the compressor itself, start-up relay, overload, and capacitor.

When the compressor is running it seems to provide sufficient cooling (both the frig and freezer controls are only set to around 4 on a dial that goes from 1 to 7).

After running the compressor is hot, as in you can put your hand on the housing but you want to pull away from it after a couple of seconds. This makes sense that the heat of the compressor trips the overload.......but any idea what is considered too hot?

Possibility #1:
The overload can get "weak" over time (this is probably 10 years old) and prematurely trip at too low of a temperature. But I can't verify if this is the case or if it's tripping at the proper temp.

Possibility #2:
The start up relay is going bad and not allowing it to start up, or causes excessive power draw thus kicking off the overload when it tries to start.

Possibility #3:
"Weak" capacitor causes excessive wattage draw to compressor (as stated in the service manual, but that is all it states).......presume this would cause heat build-up in the compressor?

Possibility #4:
Compressor is simply going bad, or low on charge.

I could replace parts for #1, #2, and #3 all for around $80 in an hour of my time......but I hate throwing parts at something without knowing for sure they are the issue.

If the compressor is bad then it's new frig time as there is no way I putting $300 into a 10 year old refrigerator.
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