Relay Actuator Repair
By Jeffrey Lawton, Cincinnati, Ohio
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Now lift the plate away from the slot on the relay frame.
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Lift the plate out of the actuator grooves and remove the switch stack from the relay frame.
Pay attention to which slots the switch blades are positioned into when removing the stack. You will have to match their locations when you put the new actuator in.
It's usually pretty
obvious...the longer blades go in the slots in the actuator, and they shouldn't
be bend so much that the switch contacts don't change when the actuator moves. The trip
bank relay switches bend a lot more than the other relays in the game, so do those when
the relay is untripped.
Note also in Jeffrey's pic that the top switch is missing the long blade that should
go in the slot in the actuator, so the top part stack would have to be taken apart
to replace the blade.
Be careful when removing the stack because sometimes the switch separator/spacer pieces may fall loose when the screws are removed. If this happens be sure to pay attention to where the loose parts came from so you can put them back correctly.
The top and bottom separator pieces almost always have expansion notches in the ends, and they are supposed to clamp onto the two tubes (that the screws go through) to keep the stack from falling apart. If the stack does separate, usually just a couple pieces from the top or bottom come off..
whenever I remove switch stacks, whether it's on a relay, trip bank, c.u., etc., I always have my one-handed QUICK-GRIP mini bar clamps handy. (These are the ones with the yellow rubber sleeves where the clamp makes contact.) The small version, which is about 7 or 8 inches long, works great.
You have to slide the top plate and bolts out for a flat surface, but once you've clamped the stack, it just hangs there nice and secure while you do your other work.
In fact, I usually dip a tooth brush in isopropl alcohol and scrub the blades while they're apart from the frame and tightly clamped.
