[Pook]

Like it was said, thats you overload protection so you don't slowly cook the motor by running it to hard. Its not to protect against shorts or anything like that.

For your own home use its going to cost you a fair bit of money to replace it and honestly if it was mine I'd just run it as is.

Just the opinion of a ticketed Industrial Electrician :beer:

 

[Pook]

x2 on a proper 2 pole switch. You need to tell the store the HP of the motor, typically up here I can find them rated from 1-3hp off the shelf of any bigger electrical wholesaler.

Another option may be a momentary 2 pole switch rated for the right HP and voltage (needs to be rated for motor load). But only if its one of those hoists the motor just runs to bring it up. Could get rid of all the crap in the box and clean up the wiring. Still no overload current protection but will work and I wouldn't hesitate to do it this way at my own house. Just size the wire and breaker properly.