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Break a P+B toggle circuit breaker

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rparigor(at)SUFFOLK.LIB.N
Guest

Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 11:47 pm Post subject: Break a P+B toggle circuit breaker

Borrowed a new P+B toggle circuit breaker form local IA to help with

design of electrical stuff that is going in and behind passenger headrest

of our Europa XS monowheel.



I wanted to screw on a ring terminals to get better idea of space

requirements.



Sounds easy enough. Grabbed my favorite #2 screwdriver and removed first

screw, the second one was unbelievably tight. I got it loose, but put a

crack in the plastic housing because the torque required to loosen the

screw distorted the lug. What an idiot, even though the factory should

have not tightened down the screw so tight, I should have just held the

lug with a pair of pliers to prevent any stress from being transmitted to

housing, instead of holding the housing and loosening the screw.



OK $25 mistake, won't let that happen again. Figured would let others in

on my mistake so it happens not to you.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Since I am now the proud owner of a cracked P+B toggle breaker, even

though a little JB Weld could fix it, I decided to dissect. I never liked

the high factor of wigulation (feel) the toggle has on these units so

figured  I needed a look. My business is copiers, and several times a year

I end up taking apart switches and relays to do field repair to get

machines going till I can obtain a new one. I am pretty aware of what

fails in electrical parts such as this.



WOW!!! If you ever wondered why a P+B non pull able breaker is around 5

bucks, and why a P+B toggle breaker is around $25, take a look inside.

There are close to 4 dozen parts on the toggle breaker!



 	  Quote: 	
		  From talking to people who have experience with these toggle breakers long

term, they acknowledge good reliability, but man are there a lot of things
	


in there that can fail. One thing I am pretty confident assuming, once

breaker is closed I think it will maintain a pretty reliable connection.



Trying to close contacts is a different story. It is a mechanical

nightmare that highly stresses many components. There are things that are

greased, and when it becomes well used and grease goes away from the

friction contact area and strategic plastic parts such as the white

plastic lever that connects the toggle with the main mechanism become

brittle, I can see a failure when trying to close contacts.



I went as far as reassembling the unit onto just one side, installed

bracing, bonded strategic pins, levers and springs so the unit can be

operated with half the cover is off!



Guess this is a leftover from when I was a kid playing with invisible V8s

and invisible radial aeroplane motors.



Impressive unit.



If anyone wants to see some pics let me know.



Ron Parigoris

- The Matronics AeroElectric-List Email Forum -

Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:

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rlborger(at)mac.com
Guest

Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 4:53 am Post subject: Break a P+B toggle circuit breaker

Ron,



Please post the pics in an album on your build website.



Bob Borger

 

On Wednesday, December 10, 2008, at 01:43AM, <rparigor(at)SUFFOLK.LIB.NY.US> wrote:

 	  Quote: 	
		  

If anyone wants to see some pics let me know.



Ron Parigoris

- The Matronics AeroElectric-List Email Forum -

Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:

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earl_schroeder(at)juno.co
Guest

Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 7:35 am Post subject: Break a P+B toggle circuit breaker

Interesting.. last evening I set about replacing a deep well pump pressure switch that had a water leak.  Three of the screws were easily loosened and the appropriate wires attached.  The fourth one was so tight [done by the assembler at the factory] that I needed a small compound pliers and much effort to break it loose since a phillips screwdriver sized correctly and a flat screwdriver just would not do the job and about to destroy the screw head.



I even mentioned this 'problem' to my wife after successful completion with the comment that 'some little Chinese girl had over used the air operated driver when assembling the switch'.



Of course the only switches available at Lowes were all 'Made in China'... 



Frustrating to say the least.. Earl

do not archive 



-- rparigor(at)SUFFOLK.LIB.NY.US wrote:




Borrowed a new P+B toggle circuit breaker form local IA to help with

design of electrical stuff that is going in and behind passenger headrest

of our Europa XS monowheel.



I wanted to screw on a ring terminals to get better idea of space

requirements.



Sounds easy enough. Grabbed my favorite #2 screwdriver and removed first

screw, the second one was unbelievably tight. I got it loose, but put a

crack in the plastic housing because the torque required to loosen the

screw distorted the lug. What an idiot, even though the factory should

have not tightened down the screw so tight, I should have just held the

lug with a pair of pliers to prevent any stress from being transmitted to

housing, instead of holding the housing and loosening the screw.



OK $25 mistake, won't let that happen again. Figured would let others in

on my mistake so it happens not to you.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Since I am now the proud owner of a cracked P+B toggle breaker, even

though a little JB Weld could fix it, I decided to dissect. I never liked

the high factor of wigulation (feel) the toggle has on these units so

figured  I needed a look. My business is copiers, and several times a year

I end up taking apart switches and relays to do field repair to get

machines going till I can obtain a new one. I am pretty aware of what

fails in electrical parts such as this.



WOW!!! If you ever wondered why a P+B non pull able breaker is around 5

bucks, and why a P+B toggle breaker is around $25, take a look inside.

There are close to 4 dozen parts on the toggle breaker!



 	  Quote: 	
		  From talking to people who have experience with these toggle breakers long

term, they acknowledge good reliability, but man are there a lot of things
	


in there that can fail. One thing I am pretty confident assuming, once

breaker is closed I think it will maintain a pretty reliable connection.



Trying to close contacts is a different story. It is a mechanical

nightmare that highly stresses many components. There are things that are

greased, and when it becomes well used and grease goes away from the

friction contact area and strategic plastic parts such as the white

plastic lever that connects the toggle with the main mechanism become

brittle, I can see a failure when trying to close contacts.



I went as far as reassembling the unit onto just one side, installed

bracing, bonded strategic pins, levers and springs so the unit can be

operated with half the cover is off!



Guess this is a leftover from when I was a kid playing with invisible V8s

and invisible radial aeroplane motors.



Impressive unit.



If anyone wants to see some pics let me know.



Ron Parigoris

- The Matronics AeroElectric-List Email Forum -

Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:

http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?AeroElectric-List

rparigor(at)SUFFOLK.LIB.N
Guest

Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 9:48 pm Post subject: Break a P+B toggle circuit breaker

"Please post the pics in an album on your build website."



Bob Borger



Hi Bob



Here is a link to album on my build website:

http://www.europaowners.org/modules.php?set_albumName=album258&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_album.php



Click on Break a breaker.



Ron Parigoris

- The Matronics AeroElectric-List Email Forum -

Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:

http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?AeroElectric-List

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