Hi All,
Well I've had interesting holidays. My new Ranger 250 quit charging the battery at 7hrs on the machine. Ok, no problem as I have too take it too Kohler as Lincoln has two 3yr warranties, Lincoln for the machine problems and Kohler for the engine problems.
Kohler warranty rep, says Lincoln didn't plug in a jones plug completely so it's going to cost me $45 to fix it. Lincoln says ok, and sends me a 50# can of 5P(6010) to replace the $45. I needed a 50# can any way and had my choice of any Lincoln product worth $45. So I figure I'm even with the board.
I get the machine home and now it charges the battery but won't @*&($!g WELD. No spark at the leads of any type. I do have 120/240 generator output at current draw. A week before Christmas so good luck getting parts and employee's taking time off for the holidays.
The engine runs at high idle and will not low idle, so I think maybe it's charging the battery. 1/2hr latter and still no spark, so back to a Lincoln rep for repair. The Lincoln rep says "bring it in today and I'll take a look". I can't beat that service.
I found out that when/if the armature oxidizes, then that's my repair cost as Lincoln says that's a owners maintenance problem. Tech cleans the armature face with a stone while the machine is running. Still no out put at the leads. That didn't surprise me as we had 120/240 output so the generator has to be working. If I had no 120/240 output then this maybe would have worked. Brushes are a ware item but were good at only 7hrs.
Tech say's it's going to be a couple days as he doesn't have more time to look at the machine right then. I call in 3days and the Tech says, Steve went on vacation until after the first of the year and he'll take a quick look at the machine. Tech needs to order a new relay from Lincoln.
That didn't work so now He needs a new circuit board, the chopper output board. The chopper board controls ALL output functions of the machine, both the generator and weld outputs.
Tech receives the new chopper board and still no output, so the Tech gets to looking future into the problem and spots the Tweeco twist lock connectors shorting too the case as the screws had vibrated out to ground upon the case.
On any Lincoln machine with a chopper circuit, if at any time the output leads become shorted, then the chopper see's this short, and will shut down current output to the welding leads "upon" machine start up. This is a standard Lincoln circuit design function.
Remove the short and all is well, no harm done to the machine. My cost, $217/otd but the Lincoln Santa Clause came thru once again, no cost too me. All it took was a simple phone call too Lincoln before I picked up the machine today.
Lincoln also told me that if you can work on high voltage circuits, they will tell you over the phone of what to check on a dead machine, [b:7e667dd741]no charge[/b:7e667dd741]. Wow, what a service!
All I can say is that chopper technology is one very smooth stable arc. I would put my Ranger 250 up there ahead of a old SA-200, the best known arc stability in the welding world. Sure makes me wonder how the new "pipeliners" preform???
T_Bone
Well I've had interesting holidays. My new Ranger 250 quit charging the battery at 7hrs on the machine. Ok, no problem as I have too take it too Kohler as Lincoln has two 3yr warranties, Lincoln for the machine problems and Kohler for the engine problems.
Kohler warranty rep, says Lincoln didn't plug in a jones plug completely so it's going to cost me $45 to fix it. Lincoln says ok, and sends me a 50# can of 5P(6010) to replace the $45. I needed a 50# can any way and had my choice of any Lincoln product worth $45. So I figure I'm even with the board.
I get the machine home and now it charges the battery but won't @*&($!g WELD. No spark at the leads of any type. I do have 120/240 generator output at current draw. A week before Christmas so good luck getting parts and employee's taking time off for the holidays.
The engine runs at high idle and will not low idle, so I think maybe it's charging the battery. 1/2hr latter and still no spark, so back to a Lincoln rep for repair. The Lincoln rep says "bring it in today and I'll take a look". I can't beat that service.
I found out that when/if the armature oxidizes, then that's my repair cost as Lincoln says that's a owners maintenance problem. Tech cleans the armature face with a stone while the machine is running. Still no out put at the leads. That didn't surprise me as we had 120/240 output so the generator has to be working. If I had no 120/240 output then this maybe would have worked. Brushes are a ware item but were good at only 7hrs.
Tech say's it's going to be a couple days as he doesn't have more time to look at the machine right then. I call in 3days and the Tech says, Steve went on vacation until after the first of the year and he'll take a quick look at the machine. Tech needs to order a new relay from Lincoln.
That didn't work so now He needs a new circuit board, the chopper output board. The chopper board controls ALL output functions of the machine, both the generator and weld outputs.
Tech receives the new chopper board and still no output, so the Tech gets to looking future into the problem and spots the Tweeco twist lock connectors shorting too the case as the screws had vibrated out to ground upon the case.
On any Lincoln machine with a chopper circuit, if at any time the output leads become shorted, then the chopper see's this short, and will shut down current output to the welding leads "upon" machine start up. This is a standard Lincoln circuit design function.
Remove the short and all is well, no harm done to the machine. My cost, $217/otd but the Lincoln Santa Clause came thru once again, no cost too me. All it took was a simple phone call too Lincoln before I picked up the machine today.
Lincoln also told me that if you can work on high voltage circuits, they will tell you over the phone of what to check on a dead machine, [b:7e667dd741]no charge[/b:7e667dd741]. Wow, what a service!
All I can say is that chopper technology is one very smooth stable arc. I would put my Ranger 250 up there ahead of a old SA-200, the best known arc stability in the welding world. Sure makes me wonder how the new "pipeliners" preform???
T_Bone
