Do you ever wake up in the morning to your phone ringing or alarm going off and wonder, "What in the world is that noise?" Then after a few moments of misfires, your brain puts it together. Well that is what happened to me this morning. I couldn't believe it, my phone was on vibrate and it woke me up!! Now waking up to the vibrating noise on my nightstand was really confusing. Welcome to my Sunday morning at 4:30am. I pretty much know who is calling at those odd and annoying times in the middle of the night... "Hey... Its Work!" Surprise Surprise. Well this better be a good one and not just a random blown fuse that literally takes minutes to fix. Even though those are nice and quick, if your gonna wake me up it had better be worth my time... I'm kidding, I'm just trying to act like a tough guy. When I drove by the scene, looking from the highway and saw a couple Police cars at the location, I knew this was going to be interesting. Whenever there are Police there has got to be something good going on. So why not document it and make another episode of A Day With A Lineman?
A Day with A Lineman #41
We Can Fix That
As mentioned this happened early in the morning before the sun was able to come up and grace us with its presence. I figured I would make this post a little different than the past ones I have done. Instead of doing all video or all text, how about a good mix of the two. First the video, using a flashlight I was able to capture a little footage while I was waiting for backup to arrive to help with this mess. The power wasn't out, and all it fed was a maintenance shed for the city, so no big deal. You will see what happened and where the transformer used to sit before it was smack by a truck. Now I can't make this up, the police officer on site said he followed the guy all the way home with his lights on and he didn't pull over. The guilty party said he didn't want to pull over because he thought his truck would stop working???? Then he said that due to his big tires he couldn't turn that's why he hit the transformer...??? So did your brakes go out as well?? I am confused?!?!?! Either way the video shows before the repairs and this post will document the process of how we fixed it. Well the best we could anyway :wink:wink So if you are viewing this on D.tube make sure you head over to your favorite Steem front end and check out the rest of the post with all the pretty pictures and stuff.
Alright, did you watch the video? How was is? Good?? Bad??? Okay?? Hey cut me some slack it was just after 5 AM and I didn't even get the chance to make any coffee.
Can We Fix It?
Can a Dog lick its.... Nevermind…
First thing we need to do before picking this transformer up a little to get it positioned right, is we need to deenergize it. Yes, the power wasn't out and this transformer was still hot. 14,400 volts on the primary side and just a 120/208 volt secondary. Hot is another word we use for Energized, just a little FYI. As you can clearly see, in front of the transformer laying on the ground are some parts. Right in front is the left door. Then to the left of that is the lid to the front cabinet. He smacked this thing pretty good to get the top to fly off HAHAHA This sort of stuff makes me laugh every time it never fails.
After deenergizing the transformer, we rigged up the Linetruck to pick it up just enough to slide it along its concrete pad. We don't want to pick it up to high because the cables would pull down on the bushings and possible cause more damage. Now the front portion is pretty bent up so we aligned the back of the transformer first, that portion isn't flimsy at all.
With the whole front cabinet shifted to the left quite a ways, we grabbed a couple fiber slings and rigged them to the truck. Using a hoist, we pulled the front of the cabinet into the correct position and then a little past just for good measure
The front of the cabinet actually bent back into position pretty easy. I mean it ain't perfect but I think we can get the door and lid put on with minimal persuasion. If that doesn't work, then I will just get a bigger hammer.
The top is just a little to the left but I think we can make that work. Now the idea is to get this transformer to close up so the next day we can get another transformer wired up and replace it. This might be one of those that when we close it we can't open it...oops LOL. Yet it would be funny to watch the other guys attempt to open it. hehehe We did run into some problems with the hinges being really bent so instead of having 3 hinge points there was only one or two. Ya, it was pretty messed up when it came to the hinges. After bending some pieces back close to their correct shape and a little persuasion with a hammer and a rubber mallet....
TA-DAH
Good as new... almost, its a little crooked but looks aren't everything right? Just some cosmetic damage and a little dirt never stopped a transformer from working. So lets see if this one wants to work. After re-energizing nothing blew up, so that was a good sign. But when checking voltage on the secondary side we had one leg that had 6 volts... yep that is a problem. The other two were good but this one not so much and this is the reason why...
When the cabinet got hit, it bent over and contacted the secondary paddle. It began arcing to the cabinet which is grounded. Judging by how melted the paddle is I would say that it sat there and cooked for a bit until it blew the internal bayonet fuse.
So after pulling the fuse holder out of the oil and replacing the fuse, everything was once again well and good in the place so nice they named it twice. Lineman have a reputation of being able to break or destroy anything. Somehow we will manage to break something that someone calls unbreakable. But on the other hand we Lineman love fixing things that are broken too... job security???? LOL So to answer the question...
Yes We Can!
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