KW Transformer Question

Both of mine do that. I'll be interested to see if anyone comes up with a solution. I've been thinking about trying powdered graphite, but that stuff is awfully messy.

I fixed this by lubing the stack inside for the two handles.  I had to actually stick a small flat blade between each layer and drop the lube in, it wasn't enough to just drop some lube on the whole assembly.

The spacer disk can't cause this because it's locked in place by the pin, so this isn't outside the case.

GRJohn,

I'm not exactly sure how you did that. Did you take off the top arm and spacer? Did you use oil or grease? 

A problem I see with all KWs I've handled is that there's some "play" in the bottom handle. I put a tiny piece of tape in the grooves of it and that problem disappears. It doesn't seem to be from wear. Even repro arms that are new do that.    But this dragging problem is frustrating. 

The spacer disc was causing a different problem for me. I was getting a voltage reading at OFF for the top arm. The spacer disc wasn't quite centered over the hole, but when I flipped it over both sides now read 0 at off. If that didn't work, I was going to expand the large hole a bit. It was difficult to get the top arm on the spindle because of that.

Roger

I took the case off, then I laid the transformer on it's side.  I insert a flat blade between each piece and then dropped some light gun oil in.  If I had it to do over, I'd probably try the graphite, it's messy, but it's probably slicker.

Never had the issue with the spacer you describe.  I've rebuild at least a dozen of the KW's, I currently have three or four...looks like four.   Of all of them, only a couple have had the issue with one handle changing the other one, lube has fixed them when it happens.

I did have one that the stack behind the handles was getting hot, there was some voltage drop across it, under an 8 amp load it had about .8 volts!  I used Deoxit D5 on it and that reduced the drop to something I could barely read. about .05 volts.

GRJohn,

Thanks for your postings. I will try that later tonight. I'm assuming that you took the arms off and the case and then lubed the spindle mechanism. Would that be correct?

-Roger

quote:

 I used Deoxit D5 on it

Deoxit is a product of Caig labs. They make some great stuff.

I have had very good results using their fader lube to quiet noisy pots on stereo equipment.

Most of the KW transformers that have passed through my hands have had the problem with "handle creep" that the original poster mentioned.

The next time I have one on my bench, I will try John's advice. I think I will use some Caig Fader grease.

Caig also has a DeoxIT Grease L260 and M260, but I have no experience using either one. (and I have the Fader grease on hand)

For reference.

That's good Ace, but we're talking about stuff under the cover.

That would be correct, I took the handles off, then the top case.  I did NOT disassemble anything inside, I've only had to do that with one KW, and it's somewhat of a PITA when you get all those parts rattling around.

Hmm, OK, if anyone wants those undercover pics here is a link to the Olsen pages.  

http://pictures.olsenstoy.com/cd/transfmr/pskw6.pdf

I've worked on RW, LW and 1043 transformers. I was interested in your venture here and I get the picture that the KW model is one I might want to avoid.

GRJohn,

Didn't get to it last night, but got up early this morning and just finished. Huge improvement. Took a little tinkering. My first couple of attempts didn't get it. I figured out that you have to rotate the arm mechanism to oil it all around. The graphite wasn't going to do it....too small a space to get it in there to penetrate completely. Then I ran into another problem. Resting (off) voltage. It should be zero, of course, but wasn't. I had to play with the roller arms and spindle position, measure the voltage so it was at zero and THEN put the arms back on. Eventually, I got it so that I'm not getting arm drag and my off voltage is zero on both sides.

I appreciate your help on this.

Best,

Roger

Not necessarily, I've done a bunch of these.  It's rare you have to actually take much apart inside.  The KW is also one of the bargains in PW transformers when looking at dollars per watt.

I have downloaded all the Olsen's pages on the transformers and then combined each type into a single PDF file, makes them handy to use.

Great, glad it all worked out.  You're correct, I rotated the arm each time I was lubing.  It took a few minutes, but the end result was worth it.