Hey all,

Last night I picked up a Rancilio S26 from a guy who said it was sitting in his garage for a couple years. Told me that "it works" and for $200 I was willing to run the risk of it not without a test at his place. When I opened it up I saw a pretty good deal of scaling and corrosion however it didn't seem like anything that couldn't be taken care of with some decent acid. When I got home I plumbed it into a water tank, turned it on and of course-- the pump was seized up. I could feel the machine vibrating like it was trying to get the pump moving but there was no action. The boiler was getting hot-- and after a few seconds I felt the pump motor was pretty hot (hope it didn't burn out).

Overall it seemed like things were functioning but with no pump and no pressure I'm not even really sure where to begin.

Any recommendations as to where I should start? is there anything I should try myself or am I doomed to sending in pump and motor for a refurb?

also-- any tips on boiler restoration?

thanks!!

Oren

Thanks Darren-- looking into it.

Update-- I poked around a bit and found that one of the leads to the start capacitor was disconnected. I can't tell if it disconnected while i was taking off the plastic cap or not but I hooked it back up turned the machine on and the pump kicked on. HOWEVER, problems not over... It seems like the pump is running to refill the boiler but wont run water to the group head. Could it be due to calcified solenoid valve, HX, or something of the sort along the way?

darrensandford wrote:It may be seized with scale.

See here, specifically the section on pump and motor problems:

http://www.espresso-restorations.com/pumpmotor.html

wow-- great site! thanks