Looks like the 33 year compressor was not seized, but you have a major leak in the system. Did the second tech repair the leak?

In my opinion a condenser this old is not worth repairing whether the condenser is seized or not.

It was fixed in apr of 2012 approx. replaced in June? I just heard of repair the other day. I watched repair #1. Tech did not put gauge set on since cap keep blowing. He checked contnuity on comp and said uh-uh.

I think you might need a new tech and new unit.

let me reword post. system would not work. original start cap was blown/melted. we replaced cap. it smoked/puked instantly on startup attempt. compressor would not start but condenser fan ran. tech 1 said it looks like bad compressor. uh, due to 33yr old age of unit? end of repair. next spring, tech 2 came out. he said system was low/empty of charge. he charged unit and it worked. i was not involved with the repair. 2 months later it stopped working. entire a/c system was replaced. i was only told of repair 2 and replacement only recently.

The fact the condenser created smoke on start up would indicate to me there is a serious electrical problem. After reading your new post, I am questioning whether a low charge condition existed. For whatever reason the compressor came back to like but then died again in two months. I would not describe this as self healing. It could be a coincidence the second repair somehow got another two months out of a 33 year old unit. It is difficult to tell if the second repair actually did anything.

Not sure of tech repair process. Owner says no cooling. Tech looks at unit. Smoke from start cap? Hmm, must be low on charge? Check system pressure? Was not there. Was told system was low. Do not know if any other parts were changed. Did tech change start cap? Reuse cap that was changed?

My guess would be a bad start relay blew cap, start relay was replaced with either comparable or hard start kit and after that they were able to see low refrig. At 33 yrs, it has served its purpose and it's time to be planning on a new one. These are hard to diagnose over the internet.

planning? did you read the post? entire unit was replaced. typical casual comments from readers