[Richard]

You said the fans were surging. Did they stop as you had said previously?
Does your front unit have one or two compressors?
When it pulls the 50+ amps, the rotor is locked on the compressor, the thermal protector located on the compressor is breaking the circuit and when the thermal cools off it is resetting automatically and the compressor is trying to start again.

Here is what is puzzling to me. Normally when you get a locked rotor situation. It is locked from the gitgo.
I typically associate the compressor locking up after a period with high head pressures associated with either of the fans stopping.

But ………there is one more scenario that could explain this. If the unit is low on refrigerant, the evap coil will operate below 32 degrees which will eventually cause water to freeze and block the air flow.

I think the unit is low on refrigerant. Unless someone has added taps you will not be able to simply put gauges on it and test.

After it misbehaves like this does it drip water for hours? Just my opinion.