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Drill Motor Randomly Burnt Up???

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  • Laptops
  • Dell
Last response: in Other Consumer Electronics
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April 13, 2014 11:20:41 PM

So I set about pulling apart this old Dell laptop this morning, and on the first screw my drill (http://www.sydneytools.com.au/products/11420-bosch-psr-...) decided to throw sparks all out of the exhaust vent. (This is all at about half power)
I put it on again and it did it again. And now that I think about it, the amount of sparks that motor had been putting out had been increasing.
I never run it at full power for more than 5 seconds if I ever do run it at full, since all I ever do with it is unscrew/put back screws mostly from electronics so it hardly has to work.
Anyway, I decide to put about half power on and 1 second later smoke pours out of the exhaust vent like you wouldn't believe, and it lasted for like 10 seconds.
After that it put off a horrible smell of burnt motor. Keep in mind this was with no load whatsoever. And the motor was stone cold.
How could this happen?
I have kept it out of it's box for a few days since I've been using it for a bit each day and the whether here has been VERY humid and quite cold so I don't know if the humidity inside the motor is shorting out something and causing the coil to heat up rapidly?
The motor still works and I'd rather not get covered in grease trying to replace it.
Help would be appreciated and I'm not sure if this is in the right category or not but anyway thanks :) 

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April 15, 2014 10:13:07 AM

Hi, AppleKid, at first place all the electrically operating machines hate something and it's the humidity, it's the basic reason for malfunction in most cases. The reason is simple - water conducts electricity. If the drill was stored at dry place before the humid day, it's the most plausible reason for malfunction. You can teardown the drill and try to dry it (if it;s no longer under warranty of course!). Check the wiring, the trigger (if there's something wet) and the motor. There might be also a PCB or at least an three-leads electronic element on heatsink. Everything must be dry and clean. Check also the motor brushes. That's all I can give you as a tip for now. Best regards!
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April 15, 2014 11:42:13 AM

Hi
Since you mention that it has been sparking before and has got worse then it sounds like it may be the motor brushes have worn right down(if it is not a brushless motor) or that a motor bearing has failed.
In both cases you will need to take the drill apart and inspect the motor.
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