I have an old Sears Craftsman 30-230 Dual Range arc welder that I have
had for over 20 years. It has had pretty light use, but has been a life
saver when I needed it.

Lately it has been difficulty to strike an arc. Saturday it just gave up
the ghost. Regardless of where I set it or what range I use, it won’t
strike an arc. I opened it up and everything seems to look OK. There is
no smoky smell of anything burnt. The fan works. I ran a VOM over
various locations. They all seemed to produce a range of voltages from
28-220 volts depending on where I placed the leads.

I do not have a schematic and I am not much of an electrical whiz, but I
sure hate to toss the thing in the trash. Anybody have an idea of what
might be wrong and how I might get it fixed?

I wonder if Sears still does the lifetime Craftsman warranty? ;^)

TIA

Jake in Escondido