30 year old AEG Lavamat 550 washing machine motor stopped

[yenice]

There is only one cable that has a little melt on the connector shielding. I took 2 pictures of the melted insulation and one picture shows another connector without melt. You can see the difference.

The melted insulation is on a connector that goes to electro-mechanical programme timer

I do not know if this melting on the insulation is a result of another short somewhere or if it is the main reason of the blowing fuse.

The melted connection was not loose when I took it off. It was holding the pin of the programme timer correctly.

 

[sesteve]

I think these machines have more than 1 capacitor so could this be the other capacitor this time perhaps shorting to earth? I'm not totally convinced as you say its doing interim spins but these could be at a lower speed and not using the same terminals. Just a thought.

 

[yenice]

I unplugged the earth and 6-groups of cables and checked with my multimeter.

There is no short between the earth and any of the 6 terminals.

The resistance between the top 3 rows are about 45 and 55 ohms. The resistance between the buttom first and third terminals are about 160 ohms.

There is no indication of any burnt metal or plastics anywhere.

I can see only one capacitor that I have replaced 2 years ago. The 2 cables that connect this capacitor looks fine.

Maybe the motor is ok?

 

[yenice]

I took apart the programme timer block. The first switch contact was spark welded in 1 of the 3 contact points. It was possible to tear apart this spark-welded joint with the tip of the screwdriver.

The top-left and top-right pieces are from the switch with spark welded joint. The bottom left and right parts are from the normal switch. The view of a switch without any problems you can see too. There are many such switches in the 2 sides of programme timer block.

Although the metal of 2 points are somewhat worn out, I tend to sandpaper these to make flat and than put everything back together and test the machine. I wonder if the special metal used in contact points is of anyway possible to be filled by welding? If that metal type could be defined, I know a shop which does precision welding under optical magnification. So, sanding or welding-sanding is the question for me now.

 

[rolls_rapide]

The actual worn contacts themselves might be something like 'Tungsten Contact Rivets'.

MK Electric (the manufacturer of quality UK electrical sockets) apparently uses Silver contacts on their products.

 

[rolls_rapide]

"uses Silver contacts on their products..."

For clarity (from MK Electric):

"SWITCH CONTACTS WITH SILVER CONTACTS ON BOTH SURFACES FOR GOOD CONTINUITY".

 

[statomatic]

I've never liked these Ako P10100 series timers, the double contact point makes them very prone to sparks.
You can sand the contacts and clean them with alcohol to get better continuity (check with a mili-ohmmeter), but they won't last that long.
The best solution will be to get other contacts from a trashed machine that have a similar timer.