clarke 235e

[mike c]

Hiya all. New to forum was looking through google and came across so thought id join and need help

Ive got a clarke 235 mig i aint had it long and was working fine. Came to use tonight and seems the wire fèed isnt working or motor. So i slakend off the the tension to see if it spins and it does oh so very slightly.

Ive just taken motor out and tested on a car battery and motor seems to spins nice and freely.

Any ideas? The relay on the board is clicking and can see it moving.

Cheers all

 

[mike 109444]

Hi Mike (good name that! ) If you removed the motor from the gearbox to test on the battery then you MAY have a problem with the gearbox. If you tried on battery the complete motor AND gearbox then you have a lack of power to the motor. This may be from the contacts on the relay being carboned up causing resistance to the feed to the motor even though the relay is operating. It is possible to remove the cover from the relay and as a temporary fix you could use an emary board (type for filing your nails) to clean the contact faces of the relay.
You may have to de solder the relay from pcb to remove cover. Use very small screw driver to pries clips over.
And welcome BTW

 

[mike c]

Hiya yes good names.

And yes i removed motor completley to test ill refit tonight and test again with gearbox.

Cheers for replie mike

 

[mike c]

Ive put the roller part(gearbox i persume) on the motor. Attached to car battery and spins fine. Cheers

 

[mike 109444]

I don't have a pic of the 235 pcb but I would assume it has a small transformer and one or more transistors attached to a strip of ally heatsink. One of these devices could also cause the fault, but start with the relay. and if you can get one a pic of pcb would help

 

[mike 109444]

Is this like your pcb ?

 

[mike c]

Pic of mine

 

[mike 109444]

Avoid P bucket as the images can disappear (account closed) Think that pcb could do with a clean
Get the paint brush out

 

[mike 109444]

Looks like it has a spot/stitch function being that it has two relays. You could just swap the relays round That would then prove or disprove if it is the relay.
The transformer that supplies power for pcb is not mounted on board!

 

[mike c]

Ill go have a go now

 

[mike c]

Right not sure what i done i connected all back up and wire is running through fine. But now isnt arking. But noticed that the white square box(sorry not sure what it is) was clicking yesturday as i pulled trigger but isnt now ?? Hmmm

 

[mike c]

Oh and i didnt swap the relays as i couldnt get them off the board haha

 

[mike 109444]

The "white box" is the contactor (works like a big relay) it turns on and off the weld voltage (hence why you have no arc !!
You may have disturbed a wire that feeds to the contactor. If you look at the contactor there will be several thick wires, these are the power in and out of the contactor. There should also be two thinner wires that operate the contactor. It should be one of these that is not working. It may not be at the contactor end but more likely at the pcb end. Follow the thin wires from the contactor up to the pcb and check where they plug into the pcb. Do the above with POWER OFF as there is mains voltage on the contactor

 

[mike c]

Ill try that tonight cheers mate

 

[mike c]

Update! Its working checked all wiring ect and noticed i didnt put the inline fuse in its holder correctly as i took them out to check if was ok. Pushed back in and all is good.

Thanks mike for your replies and help

 

[mike 109444]

Bit of a moment there then
Thanks for coming back to inform of the result

 

[mike c]

Yep been a long few days. Weld all day, last thing i think about is fixing my welder at home ha.

As you probably saw its abit dust/dirty inside, whats best way cleaning up? I did brush the pcb to get dust off.

I was thinking like a can of compressed air or somthing.

Cheers

 

[mike 109444]

Yep been a long few days. Weld all day, last thing i think about is fixing my welder at home ha.

As you probably saw its abit dust/dirty inside, whats best way cleaning up? I did brush the pcb to get dust off.

I was thinking like a can of compressed air or somthing.

Cheers

Well I did not like to say......
If you can find one a Vacuum with a blow output works well if you don't have access to a compressor.
As some of the dust will be metal particles there is a risk to the pcb of a short and the dust can't be doing the feed system a lot of good.

 

[heathmorgan]

Hi, can any of you guys tell me what power plug I need to run the 235e, 16amp or 32 cheers

 

[alfonso]

Is this like your pcb ?

I have a problem, I pull the trigger, it runs for 5 seconds and it cuts off.
What problem will it be?