coil issues

[jas415]

A hunting friend that uses a 3030 (and his girlfriend also uses a 3030), called and said his small coil had failed. 'Coil not found' or something similar to that. After an inspection he could see the rubber grommet part of the coil cable, right at the coil, had parted and bare wires were exposed. He assumed water or a wire had actually parted inside the coil. So, after almost 4 years of use on my 6" coil I gave it a visual inspection and surprisingly, I find the same issue. The rubber grommet right at the coil, has separated about 3/4's of the way around the cable. I can see colored wires inside the cable housing. Coil works great but is out of warranty, so in order to keep it working I globbbed on a large amount of silicon rubber sealant. Even with that on there I will be extra careful about getting it in water.

Then I checked the standard coil, the middle sized one and the same thing was there. Except in this coil copper was showing. I also have had what I thought were lack of sensitivity issues with it also. So, that one was sent back to Minelab for repair/replacement. I checked the 17" coil and it appears to be ok,. but I am going to create some sort of cover/sheath that I can seal around the cable.

The reason I post this is to give a heads up to you about the potential for the cable housing to split and water and other stuff to enter the inside of the coil.

small coil first then middle size coil.

 

[sube]

I have separate rods I made really cuts down on the wear and tear of pulling the cable in and out I also have it taped to the shaft on the bottom . sube

 

[jas415]

I have two anderson shafts, plus the original so I dont do much cable pulling. I think the 'wear' issue may be because I hunt a lot of excavations, like sidewalk tearouts, street tearouts and I tilt the coil so it is vertical on the shaft, to hunt the sidewalls of the tearouts. The flexing of the coil up and down seems to put that small area under more stress. I just posted it because most of us dont inspect that area. In fact a person has to actually bend the area a bit to see inside those little indentations. A good coil has a black rubber sheath on the wires but when it flexes enough it seems to break the rubber sheath and then the bigger housing. The friend that hunts with me and has the issue with the bad coil thinks water got in via the torn rubber sheath.

 

[IDXMonster]

Good to know to keep an eye on that area of the cables,especially with how expensive they are. Sube's method with the tape would make sure that the last few inches CANT be stressed,as its immobilized by the tape. I'm going to check all 3 of mine here in a bit...thanks for the heads up!

 

[Deep Digger Dan]

Pretty well known minelab problem that hasn't been fixed. The ironic thing is they usually start to fail around the 2-3 year mark with normal detector use. I knew it was coming so I added liquid rubber around the entire connection. It's still flexible, yet sealed up tight.

Definitely keep an eye on it. I've never been one to care about the 45 seconds it takes to swapcoils without a extra lower rod. Now I understand why I should just buy a couple more.

 

[amberjack]

cheaper to buy a new coil than a pole

yeah have to keep an eye and mod something myself.

AJ

 

[jas415]

First I tried to just put silicon sealant around the are but it liike weak, and it was. Started cracking and pulling away almost immediately. So, I took a 1 inch PVC pipe, cut a 3/8" high section of it and threaded the cable thru it. Superglued the pvc to the coil and then filled the area with liquid silicon sealant. May look a bit 'southern engineered' but it is working and I dont worry about water getting in the coil.

 

[AngerManagement]

My solution was to make two new shafts and to modify the standard shaft for a new cable entry.

 

[tcornel]

Thanks for the heads up! My 18 month old 17" coil had the issue but not all the way through to the wires. Off to Minelab today for a replacement.

angermanagement..........would you post a picture of the back of the standard shaft showing the new entry point? Are you having any issues with weakness of the shaft with the hole in it? Any issues with the wire rubbing against the new cut?

I am tall and use the coil almost fully extended. My stress on the wire is coming from putting the machine down each time I recover a target. The coil moves to a parallel position with the shaft. I use the 17" as my primary coil so it gets a lot
of flexing.

 

[AngerManagement]

Thanks for the heads up! My 18 month old 17" coil had the issue but not all the way through to the wires. Off to Minelab today for a replacement.

angermanagement..........would you post a picture of the back of the standard shaft showing the new entry point? Are you having any issues with weakness of the shaft with the hole in it? Any issues with the wire rubbing against the new cut?

I am tall and use the coil almost fully extended. My stress on the wire is coming from putting the machine down each time I recover a target. The coil moves to a parallel position with the shaft. I use the 17" as my primary coil so it gets a lot
of flexing.

The shafts I make are longer but with teh standard shaft I just put an extra slot in the side. I do not stand or lean on teh shaft and have not had any issues...

The other trick is the rotate your shaft and have the coil wire come in from the top; rather than the bottom.

 

[TrpnBils]

Digging up an old thread, I know, but I had a follow up question for this. The wires are exposed right at the coil on my 3030. It's under warranty until 12/25 of this year. If I send this in, are they likely to fix it or to replace it?

Any idea what turn-around time is? I'd rather not be without my big coil for long if possible.

Also - if it's fixed and not replaced, is the warranty on that fix extended beyond the original one?

 

[Tony]

I tried rotating the shaft 180˚ but couldn't get the shaft to line up at the control box end.
Clearly I am doing something wrong !

Tony

 

[tcornel]

They replaced my 17" coil. It too about 10 days.