Siemens Xl1600 Not Spinning

[Giles]

Hi,

I have a Siemens XL1600 that has just developed a fault, it will go through the cycle but the timer goes to 0 once it comes time for it to spin. I have checked the motor and basically the brushes had worn down the virtually nothing, I have replaced them but still does not spin, tried giving it a spin by hand during the cycle and that made no difference.

I'm guessing the arcing of the worn brushes has caused a fault in something else. There are 8 pins in the motor connection but only 7 are used. Does any body have any diagnostics I could run with a ohm meter to check for faults - I beleive it may be the same as the motor used in Bosch machines....It is a nice machine so I would consider (gulp) buying a new motor to save it- -if I can correctly diagnose what it is.

Thanks

Giles

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

When you say it goes through the cycle ok but fails when it gets to spin do you mean the motor turns ok on wash?

[Giles]

No the motor doesn't spin no matter what cycle you select, pump etc seems to run OK but once the timer gets to where the drum should start turning it goes straight to 0

Thanks

[Giles]

Anybody got any ideas?

Thanks

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Sorry Giles: The problem could be anything from something you've inadvertently done or not done right during the repair to another fault on the motor or elsewhere on the machine to a simple dodgy connection. What I would say is if the carbon brushes were worn down, but both had shiny surfaces where they touched the armature then they may not have had anything to do with the fault. At least one of them should have been sooty and covered in a rough charcoal-like coating where it had been arcing and sparking before finally breaking contact. If not then although they were clearly ready for replacement they will not have been the cause of the motor not running.

A motor with 7 pins will usually have two that have continuity through the armature and brushes. Find them by testing for continuity between each brush and all the pins. Once you have found which two pins go to both brushes you should get a reading between them. I can't give the exact reading but there shouldn't be much resistance.

Two of the other pins should be for the tacho coil, which is a small coil at the en of the armature shaft. You can trace which 2 pins go to the tacho coil. That should have a very high resistance between them, maybe 200 Ohms or more. The remaining 3 should be the main field coil with resistance between all 3.

[Giles]

Thanks, both brushes were still shiny and looked to have still been just about in contact with the comm, although they had worn down so the copper braid in the centre of them was also in contact, the machine tripped out the RCD on the mains when it first malfunctioned, so i guess it may well be something else other than the motor,

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Yes, it sounds like the brushes were not the cause of the motor not running unless by any chance something in the pcb got damaged when it shorted out although with an RCD it should have tripped out before any damage to components occurred. To be honest I would think you need an engineer to diagnose it now.

I wrote an article about worn Hotpoint carbon brushes diagnostics which contains photos and general advice relevant to most carbon brushes. There is a photo of a brush that has stopped making contact with the armature, which may be of interest to anyone trying to troubleshoot washing machine motor faults who suspect the carbon brushes .