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tight rotary knob?

C

carbe

New member
i had a bay shut down for couple of weeks for service and to fix few issues now when it is ready, the rotary knob is tight and hard to turn. i tried to grease and put anti rust in case it was rusting from just sitting, cleaned with wd40 but no result.
any idea why and what is the way to get it smooth turning again.
thnks
 
Had the same problem with switches purchased the past 4 - 5 years. I think it is a manufacturing problem. You have to replace the switch once this happens. I now use anti seize on the new switches before they are installed. Press the anti seize between the pin for the knob and the base of the switch. Once I did this I did not have anymore problems.

p.s. I have switches from 20 years ago still in service with no problems. Even though the switch is the same manufacturer, the quality is not.
 
I agree, probably needs to be replaced.
One other thing I'd check first though - a couple times I've installed the knob tight up against the SS face plate, the friction caused it to be difficult to turn. Reinstalled the knob (making sure it wasnt touching the meter box face), solved the problem.
 
Replace the rotary switch before it causes you more problems. I learned the hard way. A while back, I noticed one of my rotary switches was getting hard to turn and I didn't have time to replace it right away. A few days later it locked completely up. When I opened the bay box to fix it, I realized someone had spun the switch in the box twisting up all the wires. Luckily it didn't short anything out.
 
carbe said:
i had a bay shut down for couple of weeks for service and to fix few issues now when it is ready, the rotary knob is tight and hard to turn. i tried to grease and put anti rust in case it was rusting from just sitting, cleaned with wd40 but no result.
any idea why and what is the way to get it smooth turning again.
thnks
Click to expand...

Once they get that way, they're done. I just replace them.
 
2biz said:
Replace the rotary switch before it causes you more problems. I learned the hard way. A while back, I noticed one of my rotary switches was getting hard to turn and I didn't have time to replace it right away. A few days later it locked completely up. When I opened the bay box to fix it, I realized someone had spun the switch in the box twisting up all the wires. Luckily it didn't short anything out.
Click to expand...
Yup, I've seen them seize up completely, then someone will get a pair of Vice Grips out of their toolbox and destroy everything trying to get it to switch.

mjc3333 said:
Had the same problem with switches purchased the past 4 - 5 years. I think it is a manufacturing problem.
Click to expand...
I rather doubt that. It does seem like they'll suddenly go bad if they sit idle for a while, but I've never had one last less than five years. That seems reasonable for a part made of steel in a wet environment that gets handled so much.

Do you use Shallco or Electroswitch?
 
so looks like the way to go with this is replace...any suggestion to prefer one company/type over other. i don't know which once are there now which is stuck since this will be first time i will be replacing, i have 7options in the bay.
 
Make sure you get an Electroswitch brand. The Shallco don't last.

Move one wire at a time when you're replacing it.
 
MEP001 said:
Yup, I've seen them seize up completely, then someone will get a pair of Vice Grips out of their toolbox and destroy everything trying to get it to switch.


I rather doubt that. It does seem like they'll suddenly go bad if they sit idle for a while, but I've never had one last less than five years. That seems reasonable for a part made of steel in a wet environment that gets handled so much.

Do you use Shallco or Electroswitch?
Click to expand...

The Shallco switches seemed to be the main culprit for me.

My switches from 20 years ago were all Electroswitch.

If you look at the two switches side by side there are some slight differences, but none that would constitute a problem with "frozen" issues.

Again for me, my Electroswitches from 20 years ago are still in use today, some in my most used bays, while the Shallco switches that are in similar bays as far as usage only seem to last 2-3 years at best.

I have switched back to the Electroswitch. Only time will tell if they also get "frozen" over time. The anti-seize has worked very well for me whether the switch is used in a busy bay or not.
 
mjc3333 said:
The Shallco switches seemed to be the main culprit for me.

My switches from 20 years ago were all Electroswitch.

If you look at the two switches side by side there are some slight differences, but none that would constitute a problem with "frozen" issues.

Again for me, my Electroswitches from 20 years ago are still in use today, some in my most used bays, while the Shallco switches that are in similar bays as far as usage only seem to last 2-3 years at best.

I have switched back to the Electroswitch. Only time will tell if they also get "frozen" over time. The anti-seize has worked very well for me whether the switch is used in a busy bay or not.
Click to expand...

We’ve been using the Electroswitch rotary switch since 1982, with very few failures, maybe 2 or 3 switches in that time. The last time I had one that was stiff, I sprayed it with WD-40 from the back side and it freed up. I don’t see any reason the switch now.
 
thanks for all your advice and expertise, now here is followup issue, i tried changing the rotary switch= 2stack 8option yeah with the stop option, now i don't know where i messed this up because i don't know how the connections are made i tried to copy connections as they were before but evidently i didn't do good job on it .. well the problem is rinse and foam brush operate together on foam brush option and rinse option is dead. any manual or detail instruction how to do this right?
 
Sounds like you've got the wire for your motor contactor hooked to the foam brush position instead of the rinse. Just move the contactor wire to rinse position. If yours is like mine, you'll have a jumper on the second stack that operates the motor contactor for rinse, soap, and wax.
 
i bought this switch from KR ,STKR8, now i am not sure if it has a jumper on it, can u give more detail on it.
 
You should have a wire that comes off your terminal strip that sends the load to the high pressure motor contactor. If you have rinse, soap, and hp wax then this wire will usually hook to one, say rinse, and then jump to soap and wax. So basically 3 terminals on 1 wire.

http://www.kleen-ritecorp.com/files/faaf7981-0069-48c6-b14a-66c4b8dcc399.pdf

In this diagram your motor load is #3 which goes 24, 26, and 27. So you could say rinse, wax, and soap are on posts 14, 16, and 17.
 
this is exactly waht i was looking for, thanks a lot for the diagram. the link makes me curious how you found that on KR.
 
Etowah
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