[Fixed] Repair/Restoration of a Fluke187

[MosherIV]

The corners are quite tricky, I had to use clothes pegs to hold the corners

[MosherIV]

The first shell gluing was not a great sucess, I think the epoxy I used is too old and going off. It did not hold very well.

I tried some other epoxy I have, which is a lot less old but from a cheapo shop.
Pic



To get a better holding action, I used loads of elastic bands.

Unfortunatley while glueing, the plastic well for the screws at the bottom broke off, I think the hot water during the washing must have stressed the plastic
Pic


On the positive side, I can use the screws I do have for the top and I do not have to buy more screws. For the broken lower screws I will have to cut off the plastic and replace with metal hex spacer.

[casinada]

Do a search on element14.com for part FLUKE 89-4-8002 Fluke 87-4 89-4 187 189 Input Jack Receptacle Module Assembly 

[MosherIV]

Thanks casinada, but element14/newark will not ship to the uk.
Farnell, which is the same company for some reason will not recognise the part numbers and therefore will not sell the item 

I have found Fluke UK will talk to you, not too bad for customer support BUT they will not sell parts to the general public, you have to go through a distributor. 
I said that I would go talk to S J Eletronics, and I bought the bits I needed through them. 

I started on glueing screw post to replace the broken plastic, I will take some pics later today and post them.

[MosherIV]

So here is a pic of the broken screw post (taken when I was glueing the rubber back on)


Here is a pic of the hex spacer glued in.

[MosherIV]

I also drilled out the previously broken screw holes.
They had been filled in by someone else.
I started by drilling out with progressively bigger drill bits, 2mm, 3.5mm, 4mm, 5mm
Finally, after checking by hand with the hex spacers (5mm diameter), I found they were too toght.
So I used a 5.5mm bit and just cut the plastic by hand with this drill bit.

Here is a pic of the result :



I have just glued a hex specer into one of the holes. I will post of pic of how this turns out.

[mos6502]

Good job. A few days ago I fixed a Fluke 88 (input jack pins broken) using Mrmodemhead's excellent instructions.

For lubing the knob, I would stay away from any type of grease or oil. I use teflon (PTFE) spray. This is a solid lubricant and it's perfect for plastics rubbing against plastics. Greases or oils will absorb dirt and grime, turning them into an abrasive paste and wearing away the plastic. Silicone grease is good for internal wiping contacts where foreign matter can't get into.

[retiredcaps]

A few days ago I fixed a Fluke 88 (input jack pins broken) using Mrmodemhead's excellent instructions.

He will be happy to hear that.  Other than him, I don't think anyone else has publicly said they have done the repair until now?

[ModemHead]

I have just glued a hex specer into one of the holes.

I hope you can get the glue to hold.  On the plus side, this gets rid of the need for special self-tapping screws!

[MosherIV]

I hope you can get the glue to hold.  On the plus side, this gets rid of the need for special self-tapping screws!

Yes, so do I.

Here is a pic of all 3 hex spacers glued in place

[MosherIV]

Some close up pics

1st hex, glued to side wall and remains of plastic stub.



2nd hex, glued into hole drilled into filled plastic, just held on sides

[Kjelt]

Have you succeeded in removing the permanemt marker yet?
I know acetone will get it off but it often also messes up the underlying plastick.
Try a small area of the inside of the casing first to see if this plastick can withstand it.

[MosherIV]

   Have you succeeded in removing the permanemt marker yet?
I know acetone will get it off but it often also messes up the underlying plastick.

Affraid not. Just tried nail polish remover with accetone and did not make any difference to the marker.

[Muttley Snickers]

Below is the Fluke 83 I rebuilt a while ago and it was absolutely filthy when I got it, a $20 Gumtree find listed as seriously fxxxxd up and covered in all sorts of deeply embedded crap, anyway warm soapy water and a nail brush took most of it away and on some difficult areas a worn out scotch bright pad was required but seemed to remove the sheen or gloss of the holster, I haven’t used it yet but some Armor All should bring back part of the sheen but may make the holster somewhat slippery.

The local recycle depot sells all sorts of stuff and they have a bad habit of writing prices on goods with a white permanent marker which is a real pain to remove and it seems to embed deeply into a variety of products particularly rubber and plastics, IPA won’t do anything and methylated spirits does help a little bit, anyway one day whist around there I mentioned it to one of the sales staff and asked if they could use something else and she said that eucalyptus oil takes it straight off without any signs or damage, I’m yet to try it but keen to do so.   

[MosherIV]

Nice jobs o  the Fluke 83 

The local recycle depot sells all sorts of stuff and they have a bad habit of writing prices on goods with a white permanent marker which is a real pain to remove and it seems to embed deeply into a variety of products particularly rubber and plastics, IPA won’t do anything and methylated spirits does help a little bit, anyway one day whist around there I mentioned it to one of the sales staff and asked if they could use something else and she said that eucalyptus oil takes it straight off without any signs or damage, I’m yet to try it but keen to do so.

Just tried oil of eucalyptus (had an old bottle lying around) and it made no difference.
My meter now smells minty, hint of strawberry (from the nail polish remover) and now eucalyptus
 

[Muttley Snickers]

Oh well, I figured it was worth a try and she said it works great but probably just on freshly marked stuff, anyway if you have trouble finding your multimeter just go down wind. 

[MosherIV]

I hope you can get the glue to hold.  On the plus side, this gets rid of the need for special self-tapping screws!

It did not 

Just tried closing the case for fit and did screws up.
Felt screw tighten then lossen, blast!

Oh, well. Will have to drill out the plastic and use longer hex spacers and glue to side  wall.

[Robomeds]

Do keep in mind that if you intend do deal with high voltages the screw bosses might provide a path for voltage to get out of the case.  Probably not but Fluke did design the thing with non-conductive boses.  Of course that isn't a concern if you are going to keep the meter in a low energy, low voltage environment.

[mos6502]

You could try spacers with threads on the other end, like this:

Another option would be to form new screw posts using epoxy putty. Then drill the proper size hole for your screw.

A few days ago I fixed a Fluke 88 (input jack pins broken) using Mrmodemhead's excellent instructions.

He will be happy to hear that.  Other than him, I don't think anyone else has publicly said they have done the repair until now?

That would be a shame. It's really straightforward once you know the procedure. If done properly, you can't even tell it was repaired unless you know exactly what to look for. The hardest thing was finding the brass tubing. I simply cut up some cheap chinese multimeter probes that had the perfect size brass tubing inside them.

[MosherIV]

You could try spacers with threads on the other end,

Yes, good idea. I was thinking about something like this.
I do not have any, so I will see what the local hardware store has.

Thanks.

[mos6502]

I don't know if you'll find them in a hardware store, those are commonly used in PC cases to hold the motherboard. Search for "motherboard standoff".

[All2skitzd]

 I've used just Magic Erasers to clean the yellow part with great success.

 On those broken screw threads plastic welding would be the way to go but not everyone has one of those machines including me but it's not beyond me to go buy one use it and return it and youd have to be careful not to distort the shape.. If your you are going to go with any kinda glue or epoxy I would sand down the areas with 60 grit and take a cutting bit or something and make sure the glue has something to hold on to. Jb-weld and loctite make some stuff for plastic that works ok, at the autoparts store I got some putty epoxie where you just cut it and mix it and it seems to work pretty good, I used it on a clear refillable Bic ligher after accidently hitting the charging port while lighting it while driving resulting in big fireball over a year ago and it's still on there good after being used a ton, picked at, washed in washing machine.

 If you do go buy those brass risers, take note of the thread pitch in the inside of it, if you put a regular 6/32 screw in a fine tread on it's way to tight 

[MosherIV]

Thanks All2skitzd and Mos6502.

I have been away on holiday so have not had a chance to do anything on my meter.
I have just received the parts I needed :
440mA fuse, 11A fuse and input jacks



I got then from
http://www.sjelectronics.co.uk/

[MosherIV]

I have removed the old input jacks and installed the new input jacks now.


 
I popped into the local hardware store (iron mongers) and as expected, they  did not have the standoffs

[Ordinaryman1971]

Does anybody have an access to the Service manual for the Fluke 189/187.
I need a parts numbers for the positive, negative and dual  battery contacts for this meter.