Loosely-related, almost-interesting story:
Back when I lived in an apartment, the central A/C stopped cooling. The manager said it couldn't be fixed over the weekend, and I was desperate. I checked the outside condenser unit and discovered that the compressor was running, but the fan wasn't. To get some relief, I duct-taped a box fan over the condenser coils, and fired her up. Worked pretty good!
I went out to check on it a few hours later, and noticed that the evaporator fan was now working! Turns out that my box fan was drawing enough air to also spin the condenser fan fast enough to get it started. After that, all I had to do was stick a pencil in the fan blades, give it a push and it would SLOWLY spin up to speed. Apparently, that first couple of RPMs is a REAL BITCH when your condensor's shot...