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| Here's the Ole Spare purring like a kitten now, while the other heater takes a break. |
Well..., I am sure most of you were out there waiting with baited breath..., and most of my really old friends were waiting with beer breath..., for the promised report on my all new adventures in mechanicing from last week. Yeah..., took this picture on Thursday..., and you can pick your jaws up off the floor..., where they were in awe of the fact that it got fixed by me..., and Misha. Not only that..., I will save you all the trouble of bombarding the comment section with the..., "Now you just hold on a minute Scott R..., we all know your reputation as a mechanical moron..., and it is documented from last week that the parts were arriving on Monday..., and this picture was taken on Thursday..., so we respectfully subpeona you for the rest of the story !!!"
OK..., OK..., take it easy..., geez..., you will be getting the whole truth and nothing but the truth 😇 But first I need to say right off, up front, that there were some problems..., but my new E-Pal Misha..., and her technician..., saved the day with with an email with a picture that solved the problems Thursday morning. Thanks again Misha..., and now on to the rest of the story.
Monday I made a special trip to Forks to get the mail and the repair parts..., I usually just go once a week on Friday. I didn't want to start on the mechanicing until Tuesday..., so I would have a full day to work with. No problem installing the heating element..., I had done that a few times already..., but that damn circuit board was a bitch. The wire connectors were glommed on so tight that the tangs on three spots came out of the board with the connectors..., and even then I had to pry and cuss to get the tangs out of the plug ins. Thinking that the board was bad in the first place I wasn't worried about ruining it by pulling those tangs out. I wanted to be sure to plug them all back in the right spot so I wouldn't have to take them out and maybe ruin the new board. It wasn't a easy job by any means..., at least not for me. I had skipped lunch and though it was still a little early..., I was looking forward to supper in the not to distant future..., when I plugged in Ole Spare and turned her on..., the fan whirled and the little green light came on..., and then that little green light started blinking..., and no heating elements fired up..., that about ruined my appetite 😢 Turned it off and unplugged it..., and started checking wires. I found one connection that was pretty loose because I had tweaked the connector a little too much getting the tang out..., I tightened it up a little and tried again..., same result. I composed an "UH OH" email to Misha..., and started on the beer..., well before I started on the supper.
The next day I spent all day trying to figure out what was wrong taking multimeter tests for current and continuity and since I was't getting current to two elements from a triple wire connection on the left side of the board I tried to figure out why? I had had such difficulty disconnecting that one and pulled the tang off the board and such..., I thought maybe I had pulled a wire loose from the connector..., so I stripped the insulation off the connection to examine that possibility.
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| The circuit board wiring picture. |
Somewhere in the process I got no power what so ever..., and I sent another UH OH email to MishaI saying that I had really messed up now and had no power at all getting to the heater. Then I discovered why..., when I plugged in the working heater..., and it wasn't getting power either. Thinking that I had somehow tripped a circuit breaker..., but a quick check found that wasn't the problem. I will plead the fifth amendment in not revealing how long it took me to realize that the electric receptacle I was using was a GFCI outlet..., but there wasn't a little red reset button one it! When I calmed down a bit I remembered that the one in the bathroom had a reset button..., and I had power back. I sent another email to Misha..., telling her to disregard the "no power" statement of the previous email. I also sent a picture of my connections to Misha and a rather long description of all the tests and results I had conducted..., tactfully neglecting to mention the GFCI fiasco. She got back to me the next morning on Thursday that maybe the stripped white wiring was the problem and they were not making connection and sent back two pictures..., the first picture with that area circled. I got back to her explaining what and why I had done that, but thought the wires were all securely attached to the connection and explained all the other places I had checked and my findings and sent it back to her. Then I checked the second picture she sent..., and felt like the mechanical moron that I proved that I am.
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| This is how the jumper wire connecting the four heating elements should be wired. |
I looked at her picture..., then looked at the other side of my heater..., and looked again and again..., and hurried to forward the email I just sent with the message to, "Hold the phones !!!" Until I do some adjusting. Somehow when I was working on Ole Spare back in September..., I had wired heating elements #1 and #2 together..., and had wired heating elements #3 and #4 together with the jumper wires. As you can see above, the correct way is 1 and 3 together and 2 and 4 together. After I made the "adjustment" I got back on the email for forward number two and reported that, "Ole Spare was purring like a kitten..., and so am I..., thanks to you Misha." I grovelled a bit..., and Misha was kind enough to congratulate me on "my" success..., and not to rub in my incompetence..., though I would certainly have been deserving of such 😁
Now..., that doesn't mean that all my beer breathed friends need to pile on in the comments..., but if you feel that you must..., I'll understand.
I guess the Friday Nite Music Video that would express this week would best be Springsteen's "One Step Up..., Two Steps Back...,
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