Clarke 185E stuttering

[IanFiTheDwarf]

I have a Clarke 185E which I picked up cheap as it wasn’t working very well.

It seems to be pulsing and stuttering quite badly, I have replaced the torch and rebuilt the wire feed which now works perfectly but its still doing it.

It seems very much like when the little Clarke migs get too hot and the voltage to the feed motor drops when you strike an arc slowing the feed down just enough to break the ark, then it speeds up again and the sequence starts all over again, except the feed appears to be pretty constant so I am assuming it is the currant which is dipping.

My thinking is that being that the welder is about 25 years old the capacitors are probably goosed.

Dose this sound reasonable? Or can anyone suggest anything else I should look at?

Cheers

 

[shenion]

Check the PCB for any caps that are bulged or have leaked.

There are no caps on the weld output.

Check the wire reel tuns easily; they tend to get gummed up from the labels on the reels.

Could also be cheap or rusted wire.

It does sound like the feed is snagging, if the weld current drops, the wire jams into the weld pool and spatters.

 

[IanFiTheDwarf]

Nothing obvious on the pcb but there is a couple of wires on the contactor which aren’t very secure and a bit frayed. I think I will do a bit of a rewire and make sure everything else is well connected.

There are three 22000uf capacitors on the output side.

 

[mike 109444]

Ian I did post some pics a little while back ref problem with the one large cap on my 25+ year old Clarke 120 (cap size of a bakebean can). The blade connector on the cap is rivited to make the connection through to the inside of the cap. The riveting had become loose (heat / vibration ? not sure, well it is old!) Welder would one min weld ok then weld like the power had been turned down two notches. Check thinks and away for a while then fault return. So traced to cap, made good rivet and ok. Ended up replacing cap as precaution. Dont have pic to hand but if you do a search for "capacitor" over the last 4 to 6 months you should find it. Hope that helps