[TowerTalk] HDx89MDPL winch motor stopped eorking

[Dick Dievendorff]

I want to thank all the people that offered advice, particularly W3TX who
observed that if it stopped "eorking" I should ask for advice from Winnie
the Pooh. Fat fingers on the iPhone and too little proofreading...

I have used an extension cord rather than permanently wiring the tower into
an electric circuit.  This morning I plugged the cord in, used my trusty DVM
to measure the voltage at the outlet, saw 0.0V.  Pressed the red button on
the GFI breaker and read 120V.  Went out to the tower, flipped the switch,
and it descended normally under electric power.

As with many of these things, once you know the cause, you feel a bit like a
dunce.  I was fooled into thinking that the outlet was live by looking at
the sprinkler control plugged into the same GFI outlet, but its display was
apparently working from a backup battery of some sort.

73 de Dick, K6KR


-----Original Message-----
From: towertalk-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Dick Dievendorff
Sent: Monday, January 17, 2011 10:51 AM
To: Robert Harmon
Cc: towertalk reflector
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] HDx89MDPL winch motor stopped eorking

What I have heard so far is:

1) I can get the tower down by removing the safety guard and the v belt and
turn the wheel by hand. It will take a long time to do this. Down is much
easier than up. Be careful. Take rests. Halfway down gives me a lot of
strength. 

2) US Towers sells a crank. It takes a long time. I plan to call them on
Tuesday fir suggestions. 

3) this doesn't sound like a motor capacitor failure, which would be
noisier. There are a couple of socketed timing relays that I should try
swapping

I'm away until Wednesday morning, and I'll start on this then. I'll let you
all know what I learn. 

73 de Dick, K6KR

On Jan 17, 2011, at 10:22, Robert Harmon <k6uj at pacbell.net> wrote:

> Dick,
> I have a HDX589MDPL also.  I am very interested in what you find.  
> Please keep us advised.  I believe these towers have a worm reduction 
> gearbox and we can crank the the pulley wheel on the gearbox around by 
> hand to raise and lower it.  I haven't yet had to do this with mine, 
> anybody on the forum done this with their HDX ?
> 
> Bob
> K6UJ
> 
> 
> 
> On Jan 17, 2011, at 9:34 AM, Richard (Rick) Karlquist wrote:
> 
>> Try swapping the time delay relays to see if the down relay went bad.  
>> They are socketed.
>> These are low reliability components.
>> 
>> "nothing happens" isn't the capacitor.  If that goes, the motor will 
>> make a lot of noise and not move.
>> 
>> Rick N6RK
>> 
>> On 1/17/2011 7:58 AM, Dick Dievendorff wrote:
>>>> I went out on Friday afternoon to lower the tower. Nothing happened 
>>>> when I flipped the switch. I checked the plug and GFI breaker, it 
>>>> seems to have juice
>>>> 
>>>> I plan to return in Tuesday and begin diagnosis. I'll check for AC
power at the outlet, and inside the box mounted on the tower. Beyond that
I'm in new territory. Motor start capacitor? How does one test that?
>>>> How would I go about bringing the tower down at least partway manually?
>>> 
>>> Dick, K6KR
>>> 
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