Just my luck

2 drills

In two days. The miluwkai is over 30 years old.

My 18v 1/2 Dewalt took up smoking this morning. It too was old.
George.

tool abuse....lol...gobble

Don't expect a new Dewalt to give you the same service. The company has really gone downhill in the last few years.

I replaced Dewalt with a Milwaukee sawzall.
I have adapters to use my collection of 20v Dewalt battery so I may be looking at Milwaukee. But look at my Milwaukee drill.
George

Stephen, the COMPANY you mention no longer exists, they fell on hard times years ago because they were making good quality stuff that costs more $$$ to make than the cheaper "consumer-grade" stuff folks like to buy.

The current owner of the brand name bought them to get the right to use the name, AFAIK, the buyer discontinued most, if not all of the tools and put quality name and color scheme on their lesser brand of tools.

"The DeWalt effort had its origins with Michael Hammes, executive vice president and president of the company's power tools and home improvement group. Moving from Chrysler to Black & Decker in 1990, Mr. Hammes brought the "Acura concept," a method by which Honda was able to enter the upscale automobile market by adopting a new name.

As it turned out, Black & Decker already had an old, underused brand name that was still magic to construction workers.

Essentially meaningless to most consumers, in the world of construction workers the name DeWalt conjures up memories of high school shop classes and reliable old radial-arm saws that never wore out. But more important, the name is not Black & Decker.

Before its reintroduction, the DeWalt name was recognized by 70 precent of tradesmen in a nationwide market survey done by Black & Decker, Mr. Galli said. Better yet, of those who knew the name, 90 percent had a favorable reaction, he said.

"The brand name lives on in the minds of the users," Mr. Galli said. "It's almost mystical."

Although Black & Decker is one of the best known brand names in the world, it is too closely associated with lighter-weight consumer tools -- not the heavy-duty equipment that professional builders want. To make matters worse, Black & Decker's old professional line of tools was charcoal gray and barely distinguishable from its black consumer tools, Mr. Galli said.

In contrast, the DeWalt tools are yellow, which is associated with safety equipment on construction sites and stands out nicely in store displays, he said.

Another problem with Black & Decker was that it wasn't considered a macho name.

"They want the most macho brand name out on the work site," said David S. Myers, vice president of retail sales for John H. Myers & Son Inc. "They don't want the same brand as their blender," he said.

So far, the name change and the stepped-up promotion seem to be having the desired effect, Mr. Myers said. In his five hardware stores in York, DeWalt is outselling Makita 3-to-2, he said."

Quote is from The Baltimore Sun.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1992-04-05-1992096094-story.html

The parts for your Milwaukee may still be available. I replaced the same parts in one of those a couple years ago. Find a Milwaukee dealer in your are, one that is a Milwaukee authorized repair shop would be a plus.

Here are 3 sites that have the part you need, not cheap though.

https://www.mmtoolparts.com/store/milwaukee-reversing-drive-assembly-14-72-0110

https://www.ereplacementparts.com/reversing-drive-assembly-p-130598.html

https://www.fix.com/parts/cordless-drill/milwaukee/fix10121203/reversing-drive-assembly-14-72-0110/?SourceCode=3&SearchTerm=14-72-0110

The individual parts were available through a Milwaukee dealer, that has a tool repair facility,when I fixed mine. Things change so they might not be available now, that I can't say for certain. Here is the parts breakdown, you might need to check model and serial numbers. Currently, some of the part numbers do come up on line different places, I didn't check all of them.


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Thanks

I have never really considered Milwaukee because of the price. I know they have a good reputation but I'm seeing them in the stores now for around the same price as Dewalt so I have to wonder if their quality is getting bad too. So far I've marked Porter Cable, Delta and Dewalt off my list of tool brands.

As far as the Dewalt batteries, this last week I mixed grout for about 50 sq. ft of tile and went through four batteries to do it. The 18v Dewalt I had about ten years ago one battery would have been more than enough. At this point I'm either going to try Milwaukee or go back to corded tools.