Old Soldier
New Member
- Messages
- 25
- Location
- South Yorkshire, UK
Hi all,
wonder if you could help me sort out this old Clarke 200T welder. It was given to me by a relative who's husband sadly passed away and it seems a shame to scrap it if it could be reasonably easily fixed, and at the same time keeps me busy now I'm retired.
I've downloaded the manual but it doesn't show a wiring diagram so I referred to the one in this topic further back for reference.
Although it must be 20+years old it's been working fine up till recently when the gas/solenoid valve stopped working. After reading several posts in this forum I traced it back to the PCB where I spotted a visibly blown resistor ( and a dodgy looking 3 pronged type transistor - looked like it had erupted from the top, but this could have been me misunderstanding it for a leftover manufacturing injection sprue ), anyhow changed them both and the gas valve worked fine afterwards. Unfortunately, whether it caused another fault or it was sheer coincidence, the feed wire stopped working. The relay is working ok.
Double checked the soldering to make sure I hadn't over soldered into another line and all looks good. Checked the roller motor with a 12 v supply and it works fine and feeds smoothly. Cleaned all the connections on the Rectifier and other components but still the wire does not feed.
I should mention a couple of odd things here ( well seem odd to me but what do I know lol ). Obviously with the welder disconnected...for over half an hour I was going to clean up the connections on the 3 large capicitors but as I passed my screwdriver down to the screw top it caught the side of one of the Rectifier plates and it sparked........should it do this?
I then left this alone. Next I reconnected everything and plugged the welder back in to the mains and tried the trigger again...still no wire feed. It does arc though without pressing the trigger when I touch the earth clamp but only seems to do it once, if I press the trigger the wire glows red.
Checked the voltage at the roller motor and virtually none is evident. Checked the voltage ( In ) wire on the PCB and it shows 1.7?( the small on board transformer is seen working ) Not sure where to put the multimeter probes or how to check the transformer and rectifier so don't know what's happening. I've uploaded a few pics if they help, any advice would be gratefully appreciated.
wonder if you could help me sort out this old Clarke 200T welder. It was given to me by a relative who's husband sadly passed away and it seems a shame to scrap it if it could be reasonably easily fixed, and at the same time keeps me busy now I'm retired.
I've downloaded the manual but it doesn't show a wiring diagram so I referred to the one in this topic further back for reference.
Although it must be 20+years old it's been working fine up till recently when the gas/solenoid valve stopped working. After reading several posts in this forum I traced it back to the PCB where I spotted a visibly blown resistor ( and a dodgy looking 3 pronged type transistor - looked like it had erupted from the top, but this could have been me misunderstanding it for a leftover manufacturing injection sprue ), anyhow changed them both and the gas valve worked fine afterwards. Unfortunately, whether it caused another fault or it was sheer coincidence, the feed wire stopped working. The relay is working ok.
Double checked the soldering to make sure I hadn't over soldered into another line and all looks good. Checked the roller motor with a 12 v supply and it works fine and feeds smoothly. Cleaned all the connections on the Rectifier and other components but still the wire does not feed.
I should mention a couple of odd things here ( well seem odd to me but what do I know lol ). Obviously with the welder disconnected...for over half an hour I was going to clean up the connections on the 3 large capicitors but as I passed my screwdriver down to the screw top it caught the side of one of the Rectifier plates and it sparked........should it do this?
I then left this alone. Next I reconnected everything and plugged the welder back in to the mains and tried the trigger again...still no wire feed. It does arc though without pressing the trigger when I touch the earth clamp but only seems to do it once, if I press the trigger the wire glows red.
Checked the voltage at the roller motor and virtually none is evident. Checked the voltage ( In ) wire on the PCB and it shows 1.7?( the small on board transformer is seen working ) Not sure where to put the multimeter probes or how to check the transformer and rectifier so don't know what's happening. I've uploaded a few pics if they help, any advice would be gratefully appreciated.