My Craftsman drill has been an important part of my life, it travels with me everywhere I go, for repair works or even at my home.
It has helped me drill and fix so many things from the last one year but lately I’m having some problems.
The drill just wont reverse even after reversing the switch, it stays locked and even if it reverses or starts working the drill doesn’t speed up and run on low speed only.
By the way, I also have a short YouTube video about this topic and you can watch it below before you continue reading this article.
I showed how to solve the reverse switch problem by checking if the switch feels stuck or loose, or if it’s jammed or not, and pressed it if it feels normally.
And for the speed control problem I removed the cover to check if there are broken or worn out gear which needs to be replaced.
Troubleshooting Guide to Craftsman Drill Reverse Switch and Speed Control Problem
After some research on the internet and scratching my head I finally came up with some steps to fix it. If you are also struggling with these problems follow my troubleshooting steps to fix these problems.
1. Reverse Switch Problem
The reverse switch can cause the Craftsman drill to not work if it is not engaging properly. Sometimes the switch doesn’t trigger the internal switch to work and the drill stays silent, and this is what I was looking for.
You can check if the switch feels stuck or loose but I couldn’t feel anything so I removed the battery from the drill and then the screws that held the drill plastic cover together and accessed its internal components including the reverse switch.
Then I tested to see if the switch was triggering the main switch’s position, you might want to see if the switch is able to go into its three positions i.e. forward, locked (Center), and reverse.
Also check if the trigger is working properly or not by pressing it, if it gets stuck the problem might be with your trigger, but if everything seems fine it might be the speed control unit that might be causing the problem.
2. Speed Control Problem
To see if the gearbox was the problem I started by disconnecting the motor housing from the board and removing all the screws to access the gearbox inside the cover, it controls the speed controls and maintains the low and high speed of the drill.
I looked inside the gearbox, and disassembled the assembly and removed the cylindrical unit behind the chuck to check if there are broken or worn out gears.
If you do find broken gears or dried up grease, replace the gears with new ones and add new and fresh grease to fix the issue. After reassembling everything back my drill started working like new again.
