Motor Phase Controller problems

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <dhmccauley-at-spacecatlighting-dot-com>

I'm currently using John Freaus simple motor phase controller basically
using my variac and a capitor (simple LC phase-shifter) circuit, but have
been getting the following problems:

I currently am getting about 45 degrees of adjustable phase shift.  However,
when I try to go beyond that, the motor simple looses locks, slows down, and
eventually stops.
I am currently using a 2A variac (small one) and tried a variety of
different capacitor sizes, but can't seem to get rid of this problem.

Could it be my variac is too small (inductance values too small???)

Thanks
Dan