Posted: Sun Apr 28, 2013 9:47 am
chuckoliver wrote:The local motor repair shop reported the motor ran fine, but was full of dust. They cleaned it and replaced the bearings for a nominal fee, while I checked out the power cord. It turns out the white lead had opened right at the strain relief. It was not visible without removing the cord, and explains why I had no power at the on-off switch. My guess is the burnt smell I sensed when the motor stopped was the final few strands of the white lead heating up and melting open.
I cut of the bad section of power cord, reamed out the power lead hole for a new strain relief and reinstalled everything after cleaning out some gunk and oiling the mechanical parts. Both drive belts were in apparent good condition so I didn't replace them. I'm back in business.
Thanks to all who comments and my apologies to the folks who wanted to live vicariously through me, if I upgraded.
I have not said this before but I will now. If a person is going to own and maintain a shop with power tools, one if the tools in the shop should be a multimeter. They are simple to use and simple to learn to use if you don't already know how. A quick ohm meter check on the power cord (while still attached to the Mark 5/V) would have indicated the possibility of either a bad cord or switch.
The indication would not be absolute as motor windings could have been open and that would be another story.