Ranger 8 problems

[yjweldor]

ok so i was using this ranger 8 at work today, b/c the power has been out for a few days here in central florida....and i've used that same machine before and everything has worked fine....but this time, i was gonna run some 1/8" 6011, DCEP, welding some 15gauge sheetmetal on a flat bed.....so i started out with the coarse adjustment on like 125max, and the fine adjustment dialed back a bit so the final current was prob somewhere around 100a.....but it couldnt get an arc going.....would strike ANYWHERE.....not even directly on the ground clamp.....so i bumped it up to 175 max and the fine adjust dialed back a bit to about 150a...and still nothing.....so i bumped it all the way up, to 225max, and the fine adjust wide open, and it ran fine......BUT, it ran like an 1/8" 6011 would at 120a.........not blowing through everything, where the rod lasts about 10 seconds like it SHOULD at 225a........really weird.....anyone know what the prob was......yeah the machine was at hi idle the whole time too.....

regards,
Nathan Hamler.

[Old Man Stick]

has this unit been used a lot?

You might need to clean the brushes and that inside.

I had a guy bring me a smaller unit that would not make much power at all. 110 side or welding side. I fooled with it for about 3 days. Then I called up the RED people. there. Some old guy asked me to take a Ohms reading acrost the two copper rings inside that the brushes ride on. I told him the reading. He just laughed a little bit and said the copper rings and brushes were dirty. Clean the copper with SAND paper not emery cloth and use a pencle eraser on the brushes. Told me the Ohms reading I should get once its all clean. He was right on the money. cleaned it all up check the Ohms and then fired it off got all the voltage reading I should have.

If you have a booklet on your unit it will have the values inside and that stuff. I did not have the booklet with that one I was working on. So I had to call.

Hope it works out for ya.

OMS

[Mike Sherman]

There is one other thing I have had happen with the Ranger 9, may also apply to Ranger 8. Check to see if the battery is dead and if it is charging properly. Little red machines will not work if the voltage regulator is bad or if the battery is dead. Has happened to me twice in the 6 years I have owned the Ranger 9's.

[Brand X]

One other thing about the brushes, it is good to start those machines every couple of weeks to make sure a oxide layer does not form on the comuntator.

[TRG-42]

Check the auxilliary power ( 120 volt outlet ) and / or the open circuit voltage ( should be about 70 volts )

If auxilliary is bad, then as already mentioned I would clean the rotor / slip rings . After you do that and its still bad, then perform the rotor resitance / field winding test

If the auxilliary is ok them it is NOT your rotor / slip rings . I have often seen this in high resistance of the cables of the big polarity switch.

If this is ok, then run a stick electrode is AC output. If it works fine, then your output bridge may be bad

If it has low power in both AC and DC , but ok for auxilliary power, then I would check the output potentiometer. Should be 10kohms . I have seen a bad $2.00 pot cause a welder to have next to no welding power

Good luck !

[ventureline]

Seems to be a common complaint if the welder hasn't been serviced in some time.
Yep, better clean the slip rings, but visit a rewind shop first and get them to get you a stick of white "ComStock" not sand paper or emery cloth. Comstock will clean the sliprings and "true" them at the same time. It will also "set" your brushes. It's made from a soft Granite

Another good thing would be to set your high and low idles, a common misconception is to set the high and low idles by engine rpm. This is not the case with an AC generator or welder.

They are set by Frequency, ie, 45HZ low idle, and 62Hz high idle, (A load drops this high frequency to the normal 60Hz)

Get a meter that reads frequency and plug the leads into a 115Vac Auxillary outlet.