"BigWallop" wrote in message
...

"Paul Kemp" wrote in message
...

"Shrek" wrote in message
...
Has anybody had a similar problem?

I am guessing that whatever it uses to sense an empty sump is
not
working.
I
have had the side panels off and would appreciate any advice on
how
to
dismantle it further in order to investigate the problem. It
looks
like
the
stainless "tank" has to come off, what is the best way of doing
this?


It is not the sump of the main wash area that is the problem there
is
a
float switch at the bottom of the machine in a drip tray that is
used
to
sense when the drip tray has filled up. Usually this is water from
a
leak.
With your panels already removed, you should be able to see where
the
leak
is, it is usually accompanied with a salt trail under the
mechanics.
this
should be allow you to determine which part needs replacing before
you
reassemble, the most common problem is a leak on the main wash
pump
seal.



The tray is dry - spotless in fact.


OK, I mis interpreted the problem in this case it does indeed sound
like
a
faulty float switch, can you see it from the sides?

the float is usually a section of polystyrene and the switch is merely
a
micro switch.


There are two microswitches/water level sensors, one seems to sense when
the
dishwasher is full (it uses a diaphragm that connects to a microswitch
by
a
lever arrangement, and one that looks like an over-level alarm
(connected
to
a float in the filling chamber and by a lever to the round polystyrene
float
that sits in the bottom of the tray). Both switches check out ok on the
multi meter.

How does this machine know that it is empty and it is time for the drain
pump to stop and to go on to the next stage in the cycle? Because this
is
what it is not doing.

Thanks,

Paul



The fill level switch (on the diaphragm) may be blocked with soap and
other
gunk so may just need cleaned out.




I have finally fixed the problem (having to do the washing up again today
was a great motivator!).

It was the timer!

A (solid core) wire is spot welded to a spade connector on the timer, this
wire is then soldered onto the motor that runs the timer. The wire was
broken off at the spot weld on the spade connector. From the looks of a very
small burn mark on the spade connector my guess is that this wire has always
been broken off and was held against the spade connector by its own
"springiness".

I think that this machine does not "know" when it is empty, but merely
relies on the drain pump being turned on for a set amout of time (I have
found this out the hard way - I have had the machine to bits, and everything
checked out fine).

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Paul




---
BigWallop

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