sidekick problems

[Smmjbarney]

Hey everybody. I need a little help. I bought an old sidekick off a guy I work with. It has .023 wire running through the original ga-16c gun. Every time I try to weld my wire gets balled up after the feed roller but before it enters the liner collet or liner. I cut out the bad part and pull the trigger and the ire feeds fine I'm not burning back into the tip. I've tried different feeds and it doesn't seem to matter. The wire is pretty old so my first thought is change out the spool. If it still happens after that, any ideas

[H80N]

Hey everybody. I need a little help. I bought an old sidekick off a guy I work with. It has .023 wire running through the original ga-16c gun. Every time I try to weld my wire gets balled up after the feed roller but before it enters the liner collet or liner. I cut out the bad part and pull the trigger and the ire feeds fine I'm not burning back into the tip. I've tried different feeds and it doesn't seem to matter. The wire is pretty old so my first thought is change out the spool. If it still happens after that, any ideas

which feed rolls do you have installed...??

and the gun liner... correct for wire size..?? clean..??...

correct contact tip in good condition..??

[aametalmaster]

Is the wire clean or rusty? Will it feed with the tip removed?...Bob

[Smmjbarney]

It has the correct feed rollers and new contact tip. I am going to blow out the liner to make sure it's clean. The wire feeds with the tip out. The wire is pretty rusty. That's why I'm going to try another roll

[H80N]

It has the correct feed rollers and new contact tip. I am going to blow out the liner to make sure it's clean. The wire feeds with the tip out. The wire is pretty rusty. That's why I'm going to try another roll

RUSTY WIRE..!!!!!!

Toss it and put on a clean roll........

might need to replace the gun liner too after running rusty wire...

[ryanjones2150]

Rusty wire...no es bueno. <br />
<br />
Don't be cheap, toss it. You might have cost yourself a new liner there brother man. <br />
<br />
Sometimes, depending on how much is left on the roll, you might be able to spin some of the rusty stuff off and get to good wire under it. But check the sides of the roll too, a lot of the time that will be rusty as well.

[Aeronca41]

The large roll of rusty wire that was in my old MM200 when I bought it got replaced before I ever fed wire through the machine. It now has a prominent place hanging in the garage as material to tie back brake calipers when working on vehicles, is great for hanging small items from tree limbs for painting, and other general uses. At my age, it is far more than a lifetime supply. Welding? Not!

[ryanjones2150]

When I salvaged this MM250 from under that redneck's tree, it had a darn near full 44lbs roll on it, all rusted up. It was a shame to toss it in the scrap bin to wait for its turn to go to the recycler, but ya gonna do? I guess I could've stripped the 40 miles of wire off the roll, sanded the rust off and rolled it back up?

[Carl hopkins]

My sidekick has had intermittent problems. Some times will start a good arc with no problems, then it stutters and the arc is not stable. Then recently, I notice it momentarily stops. Now when I try to start welding, nothing happens. The contacts don't click. Then if I keep using trigger, it eventually will start up again, but will stop again. I'm thinking contactor, but how do I know for sure?

[aametalmaster]

Check the trigger wires also

[MAC702]

You need a voltage meter and the experience of troubleshooting inside a machine while it's powered. After that you test to see where the voltage goes (or doesn't go) when the trigger is depressed. If it makes it to the contactor but the contactor doesn't pull in, that's your problem. If it doesn't make it to the contactor, is there something in the middle, like a control board?

But maybe first, as mentioned, check the trigger itself. The wires for it sometimes break inside the gun. You can check with a continuity tester (most voltage meters have one built in) but if it's intermittent, you may just want to skip directly to the visual inspection by taking the gun apart.

[tackit]

Yes sir, had to replace the the trigger switch in the 251's gun a while back, simple to do also.

[ryanjones2150]

Was at our fire shop the other day and went to use their old MM35, it ran as always, with a beautiful arc. Then, all of a sudden, nothing. No wire feed at all. I popped the sides off and wiggled and jiggled all the wire connectors on the contactor and that magically repaired the problem. Start simple.