Skil Saw Model 77 - How to repair?

[ted.finny]

I have an old Skil Saw model 77 from the 1960's or so. There was a problem with the switch, so I took it apart. There are two wires from the motor that need to be replaced, so I then took the whole thing apart. I thought replacing the wires would be an easy thing, but the wires feed into something I don't know what it is called as seen in the following picture:

'm fairly confident someone will offer up the solution to take it to a repair guy, and I did, an authorized Skil Saw service center, and the fella' there said it would be too much work. Now I am taking it upon myself to make this thing work again.

In the picture there are two wires in the upper left hand corner. These two wires need to be about 1/2" longer so that new terminals can be attached in order to attach them to the trigger switch. You may say to yourself, or me, to simply add wire to the existing wire. Well, the existing wire is very old and is falling apart by just looking at it. So, I would like to replace these two wires.

Questions: What is the thing the wires connect to? What is this method of wire connection? Why are the wires attached this way? How do I replace the wires?

If there is a better place to post this, please let me know.

Thanks!

[Ed Edelenbos]

Looks like the field coil assembly.

Somewhere in there, the stranded wire is soldered to a thin wire which makes the winding.

Because that's the way Edison (or Tesla maybe) did it and it was good enough for him. (Joking)

The best way you see fit. If it were mine, I'd strip the wire back an inch or so and using a bell splice (and solder), I'd add a couple inches of good (new) wire. then, I'd cover the length of old wire, the splice and an inch or so with shrink tube. Then I'd cut the new wire off as needed and attach to the switch.

Trying to get into the coil to attach new wires is going to be quite the task...

Best of luck.

Ed

[ted.finny]

Ed,

Thanks for the tip. I spliced new wire just before the field coil assembly and put everything back together with only a few spare parts left over. I then plugged the saw into power with no popped circuits. Next I squeezed the trigger and did not get a positive result. There was a low frequency "gzzzz" followed by a mild expletive. I then unplugged the thing and scratched my head.

Do you know if the two wires coming from the motor must be in a specific order on the switch?

Any suggestions on how to troubleshoot this?

Thanks, Ted

[ted.finny]

I found a schematic of a newer 77:

schematic shows how the wiring should go...

[Doug S]

It might be helpful to know what the few spare parts are that you had left over. It sounds like a misalignment problem. If the field laminations and the armature laminations are touching, they will grab onto each other and all you will get is a buzzing noise. There is no polarity to the two wires going to the switch, so as long as you are hooking up the two motor wires to the same two terminals on the switch you are fine.

Try this: make sure the saw is unplugged. Look through the ventilati>

I found a schematic of a newer 77:

schematic shows how the wiring should go...