Showing posts with label Ghost voltage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ghost voltage. Show all posts

Friday, October 31, 2008

IS there a Ghost voltage in your Maytag Neptune front loader?

I get this all of the time… “I get 120 volts at the wax motor but the wax motor does not extend. Is the new wax motor you sent me defective?” 

Well, since it is Halloween you may be reading a ghost voltage. Actually, you can read a ghost voltage anytime you take a voltage reading when there is no load connected, i.e. the wax motor. The Neptune door latch wax motor has a much lower impedance than your voltmeter, around 1,000 ohms. Your voltmeter can have 100’s of thousands of ohms impedance so when you take a measurement you can read a much higher voltage than what is really there. 

You will find that if you connect the wax motor back up and connect the meter to the wax motor terminals you will have zero volts. That is why your door does not lock which keeps your spin cycle from happening. If you replaced your Q6 and R11 you need to make 4 ohmmeter checks to verify you did not damage any of your copper traces on the backside of your control board. 1. Connector P7.4 to pin 3 of Q6 - should be close to 0 ohms 2. Q6 pin 1 to Q22 pin 1 - should be close to 0 ohms 3. Q6 pin 1 to Q3 pin 1 - should be close to 0 ohms 4. Q6 pin 2 to C16 (lead closest to P7 connector) If you don't read close to 0 ohms on any of these checks turn board over and follow the copper tracks and find out why you don't have 0 ohms. 

You might have the use the repair wire to fix a break in a track. Tip: Some breaks can be right next to the component pads and can be very difficult to see. A meter is important to locate these breaks. Note: pin 1 on the Q's is looking at the flat side the very left pin. Pin 2 is center pin and pin three is the far right pin when looking at the flat side. If all of these checks show a short and the Neptune fills with water when started then my STAGE 2 kit should fix your control board. See www.neptunewaxmotor.com for all of your Maytag Neptune needs.

Until next time...