Your Troubleshooting protocol

[Waxman]

Re-learned the hard way to:

1. check all simple things first when troubleshooting your in-bay automatic.

2. If you've got a maintenance issue you've been waiting to totally fail before you fix it, look at that as the root cause of a problem FIRST.

Case in point: My machine has guide wheels that hold it against a rail it rides down. The design was poor and so grease does not stay in bearings. Bearings wear out. I knew it needed attention but I waited, figuring I'd replace soon. Well, they wore to the point of causing a misalignment of the wheel count prox, thus prohibiting an input.

In my case, I failed to follow a practical troubleshooting system this time (but I'm usually better than this), Suspecting a bad cable end on a rear ultrasonic sensor, I cut the cable end off in order to install a turck field connector. As it turned out, I didn't have a 5-wire connector. I only had 4 wire but needed a 5 wire.

Lesson learned. Stick to a proven troubleshooting style!

 

[Jeff_L]

is this a confession?

 

[bigleo48]

After better than 35 years of troubleshooting...you broke a few cardinal rules.

1-Make sure you properly define the problem. Do not assume and/or jump to conclusions.
2-Identify the fix and do it right the 1st time. Don't think you'll come back and clean it up...you won't.
3-Don't cut break anything you don't have too, to get the job done. This happens fairly often, where it would seem to speed up the repair. You need to take the time to properly remove old pieces and equipment. You might need them...they might tell you something you didn't know.
4-In the vast majority of cases, equipment gives you fair warning something is wrong. You need to be disciplined to hear and see the part/machine complaining. I always ask myself, am I listening?

My confession is that it is a struggle to follow my own rules.

One of my best rules I ever came up with was "go for coffee". Whenever I was dispatched to fix something and I figured I knew what the problem was and how to fix it...but then arrived to find it to be something different. I would have a look and go for coffee. This would give me a chance to 'reset', think about it and come up with a plan. It use to drive newbie techs crazy with this...but in the end they would see it my way (most of the time).

 

[Waxman]

Yes it is a confession but one meant to help others not make the same mistake.
I'm waiting for parts because the other mistake I made was thinking I had a spare cable end when I did not; I needed a 5-wire type but had a 4-wire type.

 

[gearhead]

If you've got a maintenance issue you've been waiting to totally fail before you fix it, look at that as the root cause of a problem FIRST.

Sometimes not fixing things as soon as discovered cant be helped. I personally cant wait until it totally fails. Too worried about what else will go bad along with it. It would be like noticing a frayed serpentine belt on an auto. Still spins all accessories. But when it totally fails, you will have a stack of new issues.

 

[Waxman]

Update; My IBA is fixed and running fine. However, I did find 2 more pillow block bearings that need replacing. Like I said, we'll run until the parts come in then tear back into more bearing replacement.

The bearings in question are originals, so I'm pleased they lasted this long!