mig welder wont weld

troy25 · Mar 18, 2014

iv got a older Lincoln 160 mig welder. its 220 and has gas hook up, iv got flux core wire in it now with no gas and it wont spark a weld at all.. comes on and feeds wire fine but no spark from wire, iv tried reversing my polarity and still nothing, iv even touched the tip to the ground clam and still no spark, any ideas on this or how and what to check>?,

RWT · Mar 18, 2014

If that has a relay to power the wire, check for a mouse nest.

If it doesn't have a relay then I don't have a clue.

But I did find a mouse nest in a Snap On YA 212.

RT (my 2 cents)

Anonymous-0 · Mar 18, 2014

Are you sure the wires are hooked up correctly from when you switched polarity?

Bill in IN · Mar 19, 2014

You aren't getting voltage from the transformer.

RodinNS · Mar 19, 2014

I know nothing about that welder... but what I've found in the past with my old Linc tombstone and Miller TBolt both... anywhere there is a selector switch on the machine, the contacts will corrode. Cleaning them up a bit or just cycling through often does the trick. The contact point where the wire is charged would also be another place that comes to mind...
I've also had cables get an internal fault where they're getting dragged around and twisted all the time.

Rod

troy25 · Mar 19, 2014

iv replaced the 4 wire relay, it feeds fine comes on fine.. just no ark and yes the wires on the front is right.. heck iv tried them both ways..lol I just seem to not have hot to my wire for some reaseon

jerrybigrig · Mar 20, 2014

It sounds like your ground clamp wire isn't making connection somewhere inside your machine ....

mj · Mar 22, 2014

Are there a couple of wires in the case that need to be reversed to change polarity? My old SP is that way.

JMOR · Mar 22, 2014

(quoted from post at 12:35:13 03/19/14) iv replaced the 4 wire relay, it feeds fine comes on fine.. just no ark and yes the wires on the front is right.. heck iv tried them both ways..lol I just seem to not have hot to my wire for some reaseon

f the 160 is like the 130 (& I expect great commonality), then the wire feed gets its power from the same transformer & rectifiers as the welding current and the only thing in the path after the rectifiers will be the choke and the gun cable connector block & the ground cable connection. As I recall there is aluminum involved, so corrosion may be blocking flow. Bolted aluminum connections require joint compound. A voltmeter ought to pin point the point where connection is lost, be it a bolted connection or choke or gun cable connection block.

mig welder wont weld

troy25

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RWT

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Anonymous-0

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Bill in IN

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RodinNS

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troy25

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mj

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JMOR

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