After unscrewing the housing, I got it apart to remove the seized DeWalt drill collar. Basic troubleshooting didn’t work. I tapped on it and shook it but nothing happened. The selector were frozen.
To repair, you have to take apart the unit. Remove all screws securing the housing. Next, pry off the housing. That will expose inside. You can see wiring and motor clearly. In this unit, the interior appear tight.
The Diagnosis
Remove the gearbox assembly and take a better look at it. What’s stopping it from moving? Give it a few turns with your hands. It doesn’t turn easly. In fact you can feel it trying to stop you. The gears is jammed in place. The gears are stuck.
You think it’s junk. And then you realize why. The little bearing ball has become dislodged. It has gotten jammed tight between the teeth on the gears. The ball is preventing collar from rotating freely.
It was a simple mechanical failure. Nothing fancy with the electronics. Just a piece that got loose and was in wrong spot.
Remove any loose balls with a small pick. In this case, a ball had worked loose. Gotta’ be a little patient. Once you remove the ball, your gears will turn freely. Remove collar from bare assembly and check for movement. Should slide easy through all settings. If so, you have fixed root of the problem.
Reassemble and add some new grease to the gear. Grease may gets hard with age. You want them to operate smoothy. Coat all teeth. Better to be generous. And reinstall your gear set into housing.
Get it all lined up properly. Reassemble the halves of the housing. Thread the screws in place and snug down nicely. Don’t crank on them too hard. Close ‘er up again. On the outside, the drill are as good as new.
But it’s what’s on the inside that counts. So go ahead and twist the mode collar. Twist twist twist. No resistance. And cycle through the settings. Hammer mode on. Drilling mode on. Torque setting on. Everything is functioning propery again. Jam gone.
It works.
Test it out, especially with respect to torque settings. Spin through them: 1-15. It clicks each time. The collar hold. It stays put. It doesn’t slip backwards. The repair held. And now you get to use the tool, again.
No more jamming.
No big deal. Simple fix. No fancy tools required. A pick and a screwdriver.
It was not an electrical issue but rather a mechanical one. A new battery wouldn’t of solved this. Only thing to do is open it up. All good now on the drill.
