HVAC help

Are there any HVAC techs here? I'm usually pretty handy but I'm having a hard time replacing a heat pump contactor. Usually there's a line side=power in and a load side=compressor and fan. It looks like there a black wire that's always hot on this setup. I'm not sure if they replaced a single pole contactor with a double or what.
Thanks

Someone might have had a bad contact on that leg and so hot-wired it over, knowing that the contactor still had to energize in order to power up stuff. 

That looks like a schematic on that paperwork in the lower part of the photo.  What does it show for the contactor?

Measure the continuity of the contactor's bypassed contacts and see if they are good or not; power down, attach ohm meter, manually push down and see if the contacts are able to make good, low resistance connection. 

How many volts is it? It looks like whoever replaced it just winged it.

A picture of that wiring diagram would go a long way towards being able to help.

I'll have to get a picture of the diagram. I looked at it and I didn't find it super helpful. It's a 24 volt transformer activating a 240 volt compressor.

Yeah, but if you want to replace it, the wiring diagram will tell us how it's supposed to be wired rather than seeing what they did to hack the repair.

Someone might have had a bad contact on that leg and so hot-wired it over, knowing that the contactor still had to energize in order to power up stuff. 

That looks like a schematic on that paperwork in the lower part of the photo.  What does it show for the contactor?

Measure the continuity of the contactor's bypassed contacts and see if they are good or not; power down, attach ohm meter, manually push down and see if the contacts are able to make good, low resistance connection.

That is right on the money...!      probably was a bad contactor .  likely it was bypassed when it should have been replaced.