# Broken rotor connection??? Coleman Powermate



## vanhoand (Apr 19, 2014)

Been struggling to find what's preventing my coleman powermate from producing power for a while now. While replacing the capacitor in the end-cap, I was poking around to see if I could find any other witness marks of things rubbing that shouldn't be or just broken pieces. I stumbled across what appears to have been a bead of solder connecting the plate that the brushes spin on and the shaft of the rotor. Should these be connected via this piece of solder? It looks like there was a little bit of silicone placed behind the piece of solder to catch it if it broke lose (which it did). 

I have no idea if this is related to my no-power issue and have looked at just about everything else. I'm going to wait to try it again with the new capacitor until I get a few replies about the solder thing...

The one pictures shows it when it was still sitting in place (connection broken to shaft). The other shows what it looks like after I pulled it out of the silicone.


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## OldMasterTech (Jul 25, 2014)

Did you see my post a few weeks ago? Same machine, same situation, looks like some of these got shipped without solder or with poor soldering at the pad.

I had to extend the wire and solder it properly to the pad. You will have to flash it after reassembly.


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## vanhoand (Apr 19, 2014)

I didn't see that post. Can you post a link to it? So the wire from the winding on the rotor come up and solders to that "terminal"? Did the other post elaborate on how to extend the wire?


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## OldMasterTech (Jul 25, 2014)

Pretty much same photos as yours and my wire was burnt back too far to reattach, but my repair consisted of cutting it back halfway to the windings, extend it with similar copper wire and then resolder to the pad. 
The wire is supposed to be held by the notch but your notch looks a bit damaged so it won't be tight. The goal is for the solder to be an electrical connection, not a mechanical one so after you resolder to the pad use an epoxy on the rear side to provide a solid mechanical bond.


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## vanhoand (Apr 19, 2014)

glad you threw in that last part about electrical and mechanical connections. I was having a heck of a time getting the solder to hold to the pad. I went back a re-read your post and it all made sense. Now I've got a glob of 2part epoxy holding the solder in place. Man what a pain though... my wire also burned up about an inch or so I had to splice in some new wire... Fortunately, underground dog fence wire is an exact match...


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## OldMasterTech (Jul 25, 2014)

I should have mentioned the required solder for that repair is resin core 60/40.

Looks like some carbon & green corrosion on yours? Needs to be totally clean or you'll have trouble getting a tight solder connection.

Please post results after you get that running again!


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## vanhoand (Apr 19, 2014)

Works! had to re-flash like you said but it's working great now. I'll probably tear it back down after a couple hours of use to make sure nothing's all melty inside but I think I'm good to go.

I took a wire brush to it prior to soldering so it should have a pretty solid connection. The epoxy is rock hard so i can't see it moving...

thanks


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## OldMasterTech (Jul 25, 2014)

Excellent! Another success story.

Wonder how many of these are out there that were not soldered or done improperly?


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## vanhoand (Apr 19, 2014)

I'm surprised I hadn't come across this sooner. Now I'm gonna be on the lookout for these on craigslist... maybe turn a quick profit...


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