One of my Poldiacs is sick

[Vaslovik]

I can't figure it out either. I have three Poldiacs, and one of them, the Aname Sleek, has developed serious voltage drop that all the cleaning and parts replacement has not been able to remedy. I'm stumped here. I've put in a new bottom spring, cleaned every part, put in a new contact pin, meticulously cleaned every part of the switch, and still, it hits weak and takes much longer to get the coil glowing than either of the other two Poldiacs. It's pretty frustrating and I don't know what else to do with it.

After one thorough cleaning and re-assembly it hit good and hard again, but it didn't last, and soon it was back to hitting weak again.

Anyone have a clue?

 

[AzPlumber]

I'm not familiar with the inner workings of a Poldiac but voltage drop is due to resistance. Resistance will produce heat, just as your coil does, try to locate this heat. Another option is to find the point of resistance with an ohm meter.

 

[Vaslovik]

My ohm meter will measure the resistance of the genny I'm using on it, but I'm not sure how it could measure resistance in the mech. Voltage measures fine through the 510 connection but that's all my meter will measure in the mech. As for heat, I can detect nothing heating up in it. Were there a resistance issue in the switch the button would heat up, but that's not happening. Surely there is something I'm missing here, probably something very simple I'll feel stupid about when I do figure it out.

 

[AzPlumber]

My ohm meter will measure the resistance of the genny I'm using on it, but I'm not sure how it could measure resistance in the mech. Voltage measures fine through the 510 connection but that's all my meter will measure in the mech. As for heat, I can detect nothing heating up in it. Were there a resistance issue in the switch the button would heat up, but that's not happening. Surely there is something I'm missing here, probably something very simple I'll feel stupid about when I do figure it out.

To track it down with an ohm meter you would need to use one with probes/leads. Sorry I'm not versed in the Poldiac and can't help with specifics on that device. Hope you find the issue, I know they can be frustrating to track down.

 

[Vaslovik]

Okay, it's back to hitting hard again, and for the life of me I don't know what I did to get it back. Maybe it was switching out the button, maybe cleaning the contacts in the switch again, maybe it was tweaking the contact screws in the ends of the button section, I really don't know, but I'm going to leave it alone now!

 

[Portertown]

What can happen with some Poldiacs is that you can not tighten the pole screws (the two screws the contact pin touches) much beyond finger tight. If you tighten them too much with a screw driver they can "tilt" just a little and the contact pin will not make full contact with them. Remember that the Poldiac switch design has a very, very small contact patch between the contact pin and these pole screws. This is designed this way as a small contact area does not tarnish as easily and is "self" cleaning.

 

[suprtrkr]

Did you try taking the length adjustment screws completely out of the capture screws in the switch? Might be some dirt down in the hole. A good soak in hot water with baking soda should fix. Oh, and inspect the contact pin for worn rhodium plating?

 

[sonicbomb]

Have you tried penicillindiac?
It's going to be down to a bad contact somewhere, you did all the right things.
The voltage drop of a mech can be measured by putting the probes of a resistance tester on the positive and negative poles of an RDA and firing it. This should be done with a known battery charge, and the RDA needs to have a coil in it as the test only has relevance under load. The lower the resistance of the coil the higher the voltage drop will be. The battery will also add some voltage loss due to 'sag'.

 

[Vaslovik]

Well it's back to hitting weak, or not at all, and I've tried everything suggested here. I've been through two new contact pins and numerous cleanings and re-assemblies, and still it's not working right. I've cleaned every part of that switch several times over. I've thought of getting new capture screws, but MMV doesn't have them any more and I can find no other sources for parts. I just took the switch apart and cleaned it all again, and now it's not firing at all. It had a brand new contact pin in it, the third one now, and the capture screws are in just finger tight, as are the length adjustment screws, and... nothing. It doesn't fire at all.

I'm at my wits end with this mech.

 

[Vaslovik]

Have you tried penicillindiac?
It's going to be down to a bad contact somewhere, you did all the right things.
The voltage drop of a mech can be measured by putting the probes of a resistance tester on the positive and negative poles of an RDA and firing it. This should be done with a known battery charge, and the RDA needs to have a coil in it as the test only has relevance under load. The lower the resistance of the coil the higher the voltage drop will be. The battery will also add some voltage loss due to 'sag'.

Well I don't have an RDA, and never will, but I suppose my gennies will do just as well. My resistance tester isn't one that has probes, it's a 510 device, but I may have to get one that does in order to figure this out. All I can think is that the peek ketron button part that holds the button and capture screws has messed up threads somehow, and I can't get another one of those, they aren't made anymore and MMV is out of them. The very last contact pins they had are on their way to me now, and that's all the switch parts there are going to be.

Question: What on earth is penicillindiac?


update:

I found a new capture screw and length screw in my bag of parts, and putting those into the bottom of the switch brought it back to life. It's now hitting good and hard again. The screws I took out are perfectly clean and I can see nothing at all wrong with them, but changing them out got it firing again. Really strange, and I don't understand at all.

 

[sonicbomb]

Atoms cannot be relied on, they make up everything.

 

[Thrasher]

Lets see, over the years I've had this from:

The magnets bottoming out making the centerpin barely touch. Just a minute variance in some of the magnets we concluded.

Unscrewing the contact pin from the main pin and finding buildup on the threads

Corrosion or dirt not on the spring but in the groove of the bottom cap where the spring sits..

I autofired the mod once till blazing hot by accident and the rice pin actually recessed more into the soft plastic.


In some cases switching the pins from top to bottom, bottom to top has cured it. In some cases I think contact may become shallow as the button "settles" or wears in but it always worked out.

Over 3 years and still using my solid brass poldi all day long though.