You would think that with the relative simplicity of car wash components/systems that after many years of working on them, that it should be easy to troubleshoot most things. Went to a self serve the other day to fix an issue with the guys Gin San RO unit. He said that the repressure pump would come on, and not shut off. Thought, easy money. Must be a stuck contactor, or a bad GS 16, which is the multiplex relay that engages the contactor. Turned it on and sure enough, the repressure pump just stayed on after the bay was turned off. The solenoids even closed, just leaving the pump on. Put my trusty volt meter on the inputs to the GS 16 and the only thing I found was about one volt on a couple of inputs. The GS 16 operates on 24 vac inputs, so I thought that one volt could not possibly hold it engaged. Voila, the GS 16 must be bad. Put in a new one and same thing. Pulled off all of the hot inputs from the bays, and still on. Only after pulling off all hot and common inputs did the freaking thing stop. Normally at this point, a shot or two of tequila helps. Since I was at a new customers wash, three hours from home, that wasn't an option. Got to looking around, and remembered that he had three of the four bays converted to Etowah meter boxes with credit card acceptors. I've installed a fair number of these and remembered Jim's admonition to get all of the control voltage transformers on the same two legs of the three phase power. The idiots who installed these did not do that. Etowah also says to ground the common side of the control volt transformer. Did that on all three bays, and finally, the thing started working normally. Could not understand how a one volt AC signal could energize a GS 16. Turns out there is a triac inside it that will keep it open with a voltage of .75 volts AC or greater. Seems with the abundance of electronics in our stuff that even small things can cause strange things to happen.
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Don't ever get to the point where you think you've seen or know it all
- Thread starter mac
- Start date
tdlconceptsllc
Well-known member
Thats will get your mind puzzeled first thing on a Monday morning or a friday at 6pm when you trying to go home seems like it never fails. Glad you found it my friend and got the man back up and running, thats a mind teaser for sure.
After 22 years....I thought I'd seen it all....until this morning.
Attendant calls. "Hey Boss, you got water gushing out of the roof of Automatic #2....."
I said, "Put a cone up. Block it off. I must have a busted hose in the trough somewhere. I'll be right there.".
He calls back before I can even leave the house.
"Hey Boss, guess what now? Auto #1 arch will not make it around the racetrack without stalling. On top of that....One of the hoses has a small pinhole leak......"
What the heck???? 'Both automatic bays have an issue. Is there a full moon or what?
I'll spare you the chase. It was a doozie that would take to long to tell..... (Because we were troubleshooting the two bays as separate problems....we spent several hours heading the wrong direction.
Unknowns to us....it turns out that a leak in a hose allowed each pass of presoak soap to saturate the top of the arch that our racetrack style trolley runs upon. Obviously, this would make it slippery.
At exactly the right spot (apparently), the trolley started slipping, the wash went to high pressure rinse and was spraying a perfectly aimed spray across the bay, up at the ceiling, through a 3" hole between the two automatic bays (right at the roofline), and onto the roof of the adjoining bay.
Because we were troubleshooting the two bays as separate problems....we spent several hours heading the wrong direction.
What are the odds that a hole in a hose would occur at precisely the spot and angle to find a 3" access hole into an adjoining bay....if, and only if the trolley would decide to stop and slip at exactly the one spot required for it to do so??????
Perhaps I should go play a number today?????
Attendant calls. "Hey Boss, you got water gushing out of the roof of Automatic #2....."
I said, "Put a cone up. Block it off. I must have a busted hose in the trough somewhere. I'll be right there.".
He calls back before I can even leave the house.
"Hey Boss, guess what now? Auto #1 arch will not make it around the racetrack without stalling. On top of that....One of the hoses has a small pinhole leak......"
What the heck???? 'Both automatic bays have an issue. Is there a full moon or what?
I'll spare you the chase. It was a doozie that would take to long to tell..... (Because we were troubleshooting the two bays as separate problems....we spent several hours heading the wrong direction.
Unknowns to us....it turns out that a leak in a hose allowed each pass of presoak soap to saturate the top of the arch that our racetrack style trolley runs upon. Obviously, this would make it slippery.
At exactly the right spot (apparently), the trolley started slipping, the wash went to high pressure rinse and was spraying a perfectly aimed spray across the bay, up at the ceiling, through a 3" hole between the two automatic bays (right at the roofline), and onto the roof of the adjoining bay.
Because we were troubleshooting the two bays as separate problems....we spent several hours heading the wrong direction.
What are the odds that a hole in a hose would occur at precisely the spot and angle to find a 3" access hole into an adjoining bay....if, and only if the trolley would decide to stop and slip at exactly the one spot required for it to do so??????
Perhaps I should go play a number today?????
MEP001
Well-known member
In your experience, 100%.
