/diy/ - Do It Yourself

does it make any noise? does it have a fuse?
my alternator fucks up because the brushes are worn down. i just give it a few bangs with a brick or a hammer and suddenly the car will start again. try giving it a few bangs. or try disconnecting it, turning the motor shaft by hand and reapplying power to see if it needs fixing

>>578204
Sorry i cant help with your problem i just wanted to ask, how did you come to live on a fucking boat?

That is pretty cool.

>>578207
I think the dutch need to inherit one. also they need to inherit dock space. apparently there are more narrow boats than spaces to park them. but you can even get high speed internet hooked up to your boat

>>578204
1: does it make any noise at all?
2: is there any kind of smell/smoke coming from it?
3: is/was it warm/hot to the touch?

Since this is a flow pump there could be a number of problems.

1: the pressure sensor is bad, needs replaced or needs adjusted.
2: if it has a start/run capacitor, it could need replacing
3: if it has brushes, those may need replacing

If you open it up, it may have cooling fluid in part of the housing. If it does and that fluid smells fucking horrific then it may have overheated. Normally, there'd be a capacitor in that section in with the coolant. It'll burn up and dirty the coolant. If that is the case, just replace the capacitor and the coolant. You can use any type of mineral oil to replace the coolant, even "baby oil," grade mineral oil. If you do need to open the motor housing up, do it in a bucket or tote while outside just in case there is coolant inside. The smell of burned capacitor in coolant can make you really ill with just 1-2 breaths. So, don't open it up inside.

One trick I came up with to keep these motor cooler was to use a bit of thermal paste and zip tie some aluminum heat sinks to it that I sourced from old PCs. Making sure there's plenty of air flow to the pump motor is also a good idea.

Keeping the length of time you use the water down to minimal also helps greatly extend the life of those pumps.

>>578216
No, there's no noise / smell / heat. Nada.

Thanks for the advice, I guess I'll have to have a go taking it apart tonight. (If banging it doesn't work of course!)

>>578239
perhaps also check to see if there is any power going to the pump. it may not be the pump at all but the power lines

>>578207
I'm trying to save some money; boat rent is around half what I was paying for a flat. Renting in London is really expensive!

>>578239
No noise. How about a mild vibration? Put you hand on it and turn it on. Also, do you have a pressure switch hooked up to your water lines or is it built into the motor? If it is built into the motor and you are not feeling a vibration when it is supposed to be on, the sensor/pressure switch might be bad and need replaced.

Normally, if there's a low hum or vibration it means the capacitor has blown and it can't get up to speed. Leaving it on would burn up more than the capacitor.

>>578247
>rent

Call your landlord and tell him about it. Don't try to fix it yourself unless you bought it or there's some sort of special clause that allows you to change it out/fix it. If you screw around with it and can't fix it and the land lord finds out you messed with it, he might want to take the cost of replacement out of your deposit, increase rent, or want compensation. I'm speaking from a USA perspective, so things may be different for you.

I hate rentals. You can never do anything to them.

>>578290
yah pretty much. it doesnt belong to you so its not yours to fix.

>>578287
> capacitor has blown

Its a DC motor. No capacitor.

>>578216
OP here. Nailed it: faulty pressure switch. I'll lash up a temporary switch so I can have a shower (!) and order a new one.

The landlord is absent, he said "do whatever you need to do" and went travelling for a year. So far I've learnt about and repaired the boiler, the diesel generator, the central heating and now this. Great learning curve!

Thanks for the help.

>>578374
What? I've worked on tons of DC motors that have capacitors.

>>578537
Flux capacitor, Marty?

>>578538
>>578374
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_capacitor#DC_motor_suppression

>>578374
>>578505
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>>579742
>>578549
function show_alert value="Show User" eval("x=10 y=20;document.write(x*y)");