Makita RIP

You could try spraying some contact cleaner in through the motor cooling slots and running it .. but be aware it might create a flame or three to start with! Spray the trigger switch too if you can get close enough to it.

We used to do this often with electric motors working in dusty or very dry environments.

If you fancy opening it up, bearing in mind you've little to lose, check the trigger and it's contacts. One I fixed recently had a plastic part of the trigger broken, not allowing the trigger to press the metal strip switch together. Quick repair with epoxy and job's a good 'un .. ;)

But NOT WD-40... :-)

Undo those black plastic covers toward the back of the machine (the round ones about the size of a 2p), you can then pull out the brush and check.

i.e. Level with about the 3cm mark on this one:

Frank Erskine wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

This may be a silly question but why not? WD40 is the first thing I'd reach for.

At that age and level of use that would be the most probable cause of the type of failure you have observed.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember The Medway Handyman saying something like:

Brushes are cheap enough to find out if that's the cause. Just take out the old ones for a look, you'll soon see if they're short.

'cos WD40 is a basically a water dispersant. Although it's also a cleaner, it's more likely to create a paste of elecrical/carbon deposits and f*ck the motor good and proper rather than dispersing them. Contact Cleaner cleans off carbon deposits from the brushes/comm quite easily, but is a solvent with a low flash-point so might 'flame-out' a little .. ;)

Well, it *could* be worn brushes - or a dirty commutator. But it's more likely to be a duff winding. If it stops with a brush facing that winding, it won't re-start. Move it round to a different position, and it's ok. That sounds like your symptoms to me.

If so, a new motor will probably not be that expensive.

"Paul - xxx" wrote in news:94evcnFg3uU1 @mid.individual.net:

Well I live and learn, thanks for the tip.