The Daring Dufas wrote in
:

Smitty Two wrote:
Hey, it's a home appliance, so it's almost home repair. Anyway I've
fixed my girlfriend's aging vacuum three times in three years, and
keep encouraging her to buy a new one.

This weekend's episode concerned the motor that drives the brush. A
little VOM work confirmed voltage was reaching the motor leads,
confirming switch and wiring integrity. As a double-check I cut and
stripped the wires and got out the suicide cord. No sign of motor
life.

She went on the internet and started pulling up prices in the $120
range for a new motor. Sheesh. I'm in the wrong business.

So I took the motor apart. A quick ohmmeter check showed the field
winding to be open, but I sure didn't see any damage to it that would
account for it being open. I decided to take a look at the crimped
splices that connect the magnet wire to the leads, and my surgery
revealed a little thermal fuse. The fuse tested open, the field
winding tested continuous.

Maybe I shot myself in the foot, because now I'm stuck maintaining
the damn thing for a while longer. But anyway, $1.69 plus tax at
Radio Shack, and an hour's work is all it took to restore the thing
to relatively good health.

I love simple stuff. I'm glad I have the experience to troubleshoot
simple stuff and the tools and the time to fix simple stuff.

I'm amazed at all the stuff that gets tossed because of a simple
problem such as the one you repaired. I've acquired a lot of
expensive computer motherboards that had a simple blown keyboard
fuse that's the size of half a grain of rice. Most of the
problems I find with malfunctioning consumer electronics is cold
solder joints. I suppose you will be one of the survivors when
the world goes to hell because you can keep technology going
and won't be helpless and or hapless.

TDD


But you deny yourself the opportunity to get the latest and greatest
stuff that's even less reliable.