Clarke 135te torch problem?

[Daniel-rover]

hi all, I've had a search for this problem but have not found it yet, so apologies if it's already discussed!
This is my first welder a Clarke 135te. I bought it second hand about three month ago. I did a welding course at college over 15 years ago now and never touched it since! That was only arc welding too so I'm still learning used a lot of tips off this site and watched the vids etc! So big thanks. Anyway My transit van needed a lot of welding to pass its mot so I bought it and did it all and it passed! Took me days but saved a fortune! So now my family car needed a patch on the sill where some fool at the tyre shop put a jack through it and me been the other fool never noticed till the mot guy showed me! Enough background!
I'm welding away and the wire feed jams, motor thing still turning but no wire coming out nozzle, I check the tip but this time it's not blocked with my dodgy welding technique ! Inside the spool looks fine so I took nozzle off and pulled wire with pliers, ran free, started to weld again and jam I'm sure I hear a little puff noise come from the trigger/torch. I remove nozzle again and pull the wire, it comes free but brings out the lining spring thing and it's all twisted at the bottom and there's a kink in the wire, so I just presume it's a bad spool with a kink in it. Off to mm buy a new nozzle liner and some new tips, load the liner in as described by mm tech line. start welding again, fine for May be ten mins on off welding, now moved on to patching exhaust lol, all good practice! It happens again. I'm positive with the noise I'm hearing, a puff of smoke comes out too this time I strip torch as its wanting to pull the lining out again I get the wire free from the liner and the wire that was in the torch at the time of this looks almost like it been welded to itself hence I think giving a kinked appearance. Has anyone had this problem? Could it be the gas block thing in the torch??
Thanks for reading my small essay! I wanted to give you all an overall picture of what I'm up too.

 

[Cobbler]

Hi there & welcome to the forum, sounds l the torch needs an overhaul, get yourself a new liner, steel, not plastic windscreen washer tube, some say you can use springy curtain wire it's the same size apparently, not tried it though. A new spring inside the swanneck & a new tip, Look on Weldequip's web site (button on top of page) he lists all the parts, or call into Machine Mart. Most of these problems are caused by the wire sticking in the liner & swan neck, often due to rust on the wire. Check the outer layers of the reel carefully & run them off & discard if in any doubt. I reckon you will find the liner is plastic as supplied by Clarke originally, the wire cuts in & won't run evenly. If you pull from the torch end with the feed dropped off, there should be almost no resistance. Spend about a tenner on it possibly & you will have a good machine. It will take you about half an hour to sort out

 

[Daniel-rover]

Ok thanks I'll give that a go, not sure if mine has a plastic liner or the new kind. I'll have a look nxt time I'm there. I've decamped all my tools to my sisters house as she has a nice sized workshop with a pit, with no use for it lol