Raritan Crown Deep Draft Head

R

rtribble

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Our forward head will occasionaly only click at the soleniod and not turn the motor until after we "tap" on the motor a few times. We are getting voltage to the soleniod and motor when the switch is engaged and it just clicks.
This is a 1985 Raritan Crown D. D. head and was "rebuilt" four years back.
We've always been able to get it to work, but think we should isolate the cause and effect repairs before it becomes inoperable.
Do you think the problem is in the motor (worn bushing) or mabe the soleniod (not engaging)?
Any ideas?
 
Good voltage to the motor when the solenoid is engaged and the motor doesn't run?? Bypass the solenoid and see if the pump runs good. I assume you have checked the wiring connections.
 
Could need brushes, or have a flat spot on the armiture. I'm sure Vic will chime in here.
 
To test the solenoid, jump across the two large lugs on the solenoid with a heavy piece of wire. The head should run. If it runs that way, but doesn't when you press the pushbutton, then the solenoid may be bad - or the pushbutton switch may be bad. To check the button, do the same thing - jump across the two contacts on the rear of it. If the head runs, the pushbutton switch is bad.

However, it sounds to me like the brushes are hanging up. As the brushes wear a little, the graphite particles from the brushes tend to "catch" in the channel that the brushes slide in. Take off the two brass cover plates on the sides, toward the rear of the motor. Then, with a pair of needle nose pliers, grab the wire pigtail that comes out of the brush and tug on it several times, to work the brush a little in its channel, freeing it up. That "should" be all that you need to do.

If the armature should have a dead spot on the commutator, it's time to go shopping for a new head. Parts aren't available for it any longer. About the only thing you can still get is the impeller for the raw water pump on the back of it, and the front cover - the round disc on the front of it with the six screws. Beyond that, parts are few and far between for a Deep Draft model.
 
Thanks all for the coments. Vic, we did jump across the soleniod lugs and the motor would not turn until after we "tapped" on it a couple times. It has been working fine since so perhaps you are right about the brushes. I've seen a couple Jabsco macerator pump motors listed on E-Bay that had the long shaft and sure looked like the same type motor shown on the exploded drawings on this head but of course don't know if they would work or not without some kind of a cross reference listing.
Oh well I gues if they are working now I'll just keep my fingers crossed.
Again thanks to all who took time to respond.
 
Rex, hold up - stop right there - there's nothing else that is interchangeable with a Crown Head motor. They were only made by Raritan, and the discharge pump and macerator are all integral to the motor unit - you can't separate the motor out from the rest of it - it's all one unit. Newer ones built after 1989 do have a discrete motor that can be replaced by itself, but it rarely pays to do it.

And everybody else as well - before you even think about bidding on any used or new old stock marine sanitation items on eBay, please contact me first. I get calls every day from poor slobs who got "stuck" buying off of eBay. Unless something is brand new, in the box and is in current production, be very wary of it! There's a reason it's there for sale on eBay, and it often isn't because the item is good as new! Very often it's out of production where parts for it are no longer available. Case in point, somebody recently bought a brand new, in the box, Lectra/San that was actually over 30 years old; it was only manufactured for one year - 1974. And the poor guy paid over $500.00 for it! He e-mailed me, looking for an Owner's Manual for it because he couldn't figure out how to hook it up. And I had to be the bearer of bad news to the poor guy. Yep it'd never been used all right, but it predated the Coast Guard Certification, and even IF IT DID WORK after all these years, it isn't legal! So be very careful when buying something like that off of eBay, you could be throwing away your money.
 
Thanks Vic, point well taken and I appreciate your knowledge on the subject.
 
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