^' Gong repair

[magicitybill]

I have a 6" turtle gong which works mechanicaly but not electricly.  I assume the coils are bad.  I have tried to test them and got nothing.  Can these be rewound?  Has anyone tried this?

[almdoc]

Hi, Having the coils rewound will most likey cost as much as purchasing another gong and trying it yourself usually ends up as a birds nest of wire at your feet. Have you tested with a meter or just assuming its electical because it doesn't strike when you put power to it ? Use a test meter and check continuity between the two wires that are connected to the terminals. If your good there its something else. If not clip one lead of your meter where the wires are soldered together between the two coils and each terminal wire. See if you have anything there. It is very unlikely that both coils are bad. In most cases the problem is a broken wire somewhere instead of a burnt out coil. When fire alarm coils are burnt out it is usually from a spike voltage such as a lightning strike. The damage is obvious. One other thing about single stroke electro-mechanical fire alarm gongs. They MUST be in the upright position (terminals up) to operate correctly. Gravity is part of the operating equation. Don't laugh ! I've had many a collector tell me their gong had a problem but during the conversation found out it was mounted on the ceiling, upside down, sideways, or laying on their work bench. VERTICAL ! TERMINALS UP ! They won't operate any other way! Hope this helps.

[magicitybill]

I tested continunity across the two top terminals.  Nothing there.  I tried the wires leaving the coils too.  I cannot see the coil to coil connection but that is where I think I need to head to next.  I tried to unscrew the screw that holds the coils to the body of the gong but they are TIGHT!  They are right hand I hope?  I know the vertical position trick.  I wish that was it.

I think I can rewind them but I would rather just connect two broken wires.

Thank you for the help!  Thinking about how they work I thought I should have continunity across the terminals.  Thanks for confirming that. If I find that one or both of them are bad I will be back here again.

Bill

[Spencer541]

Not to piggy back off the original question but:
Does it matter which side of the coils the positive goes in?  Is there a positive and negative side to the terminal?

Good to know that the terminals are supposed to be on the upward side.
Thanks

[almdoc]

It doesn't matter. You do need to get rid of that red jumper wire though.