On Aug 25, 3:40*pm, Jon Elson wrote:
Buerste wrote:
Something doesn't work so you take it apart and troubleshoot all the
components. *You can't find anything wrong so you put it back together
and...IT WORKS PERFECT! *It has happened to me for forever but what's going
on? *My latest is the icemaker in the kitchen refrigerator. *I spent hours
and hours finding documents and troubleshooting. *No, it wasn't frozen-up,
(the most common fault it seems) the motor worked, the thermostat checked
out, the heater passed muster. *The water valve is OK and all cleaned out.
(I've replaced plenty of those in different units over the years). *Of
course, I find nothing else that could cause it to crap out so put it all
back together and...it works just fine. *Go figure. *I've had hundreds if
not thousands of this kind of thing, I'll bet everybody else does too!

Bad electrical connections, almost for sure. *The only question is how
long it will take to go bad again. *All sorts of those tin-plated quick
connect terminals, in a variety of forms and sizes, have slow corrosion
of the contact area. *If perfectly clean, applying 120 V will always
break through the oxide. *When not so clean, they can amazingly sit
there with 120 V across them and no conduction, until you separate and
remate the contacts. *That's why when it matters (automotive "important
stuff", aerospace, etc.) they use gold connectors.

Jon

What's really fun is tracking down 10 millivolts or so 'lost' due to
fretting.

Dave