Help! We need diagnostic assistance. A friend and I are currently looking over his newly acquired Sama Export. We are no longer getting heat from the boiler.

We plugged it in and got steam the first time, but the safety valve was set at a very loose setting and it did not reach significant pressure. We adjusted the safety valve setting, and the second time we fired up to get some pressure, no heat from the boiler. We are now trying to do some diagnostics on it to isolate the issue.

The rocker arm light works, but no the temperature/pressure light indicator (the one on the right as you face it).

The boiler does not heat.

The wiring configuration has: one ground, two power in to rocker arm; one rocker arm lead to boiler, one to pressure stat; one lead from pressure stat to boiler, and two leads from boiler to indicator light.

Our next move is to take down the whole thing and check the heating element for faults, although at this point I do not think it should be faulty - there was no stress placed on it to our knowledge.

Any suggestions? If there is anyone with a wiring diagram of the Export it would be very useful to check our configuration. A manual would be good too...if anyone can oblige.

Meanwhile, we'll continue to take it down....

Thanks, sa

Simon
At it again eh? So check the element first by taking off the wires and running a resistance check with a meter.....you likely know this but 0 is bad and 1 is bad on the ohm scale, should get some resistance reading from a good element. If the element is not burned or shorted then bridge the safety fuse and see what happens, checking continuity of the wires as you go. The wiring is basically the neutral wire goes to one post of the elemenbt and the other post is run through the pstat by way of the safety fuse, if it has one. Check continuity through the pilot light and then bridge the wiring at the light . Lots of fairly safe bridgeing you can do to skip a part in the circuit to see if that one is the bad one....after doing an ohm test on the element to make sure that you are not shooting blanks in the first place..... is that a proper notion in Canada, shooting blanks? aGood to hear you are keeping your hands busy. What ever happened to the club machine with the cracked boiler? And the Riviera with the broken boiler fittings?

Hey Doug. Yeah, at it again. And I'll post results of the other rebuilds going on.

But first, a few pics of the Sama. It's such a pretty little machine. A friend of mine picked it up, and we're just doing a basic refurb or fix-up, when we ran immediately into the problem described above. I have been a little too negligent to attend to it yet, but it is next. I need to go get an ampmeter or voltmeter or whatever the electrical tool it to test it as you suggest, which I'll do next.

But first, just for those who want a quick look under the lid, some pictures of the Sama coming apart.



and



and



and under the hood...a very familiar configuration...



and under the base, the wiring....



and I don't know if you can see this, but the boiler is raised up high enough to allow for the electrics to all fit in underneath...



and

.

All a very elegant little set-up. As I said I have not gone into this machine in depth yet. One problem is the electric one - it is dead right now, although the indicator lights do work. (One is a cheap led light that seems very fragile). So I know I'm going to have to test the leads on the element, but I also want to open up the boiler and check the integrity of the element itself. I worry it may have cracked somehow. To do that you have to peel away the electircs, and then use alan keys on the nuts holding the base of the boiler on, which is also the element (very much like the Cremina configuration). One of ours was stripped, and because they are hard to get to, it is not easy to find a way to get it out. I think I have the solution now, which I'll post about next time I'm on. For now, I want to meditate on the nice trim little design and the overall good health of this specimen. I'm looking forward to getting it up and pumping.

Simon,
Gimme a buzz, I've got a voltage meter you can borrow. I'll bring it over along with my new Futurema grinder for you to check out.

Good lookin grinder man. Sweet deal for the low low price of...?

Here are some pics of the Sama boiler. My problem now is these stripped bolts. Two of them, sealed right in, one snapped off the head of the allan key, which is now buried in the bolt head, and the other sheared off right at the level of the boiler surface. <Sigh>.

So, I've gone an bought those "screw grabber" bits for a power drill that allow you to cut away a segment of the screw/bolt and drill the bit in counter-clockwise, which is supposed to give you enough grip to screw the bolt/screw out again. I'm not holding out much hope, but that's the next move. Otherwise, back to the metal shop to re-drill these holes. Argh.

The boiler itself -- small and sweet.



and



and



and



and finally...the sight glass.

Has anyone taken down one of these? We have run into a little problem and it would make problem-solving easier if I knew a little bit about what I'll find underneath.

The four alan-key type bolts holding the base on were rusted rusted rusted shut. Two sheared, and I've had to drill them out. One I've tried to drill out as well (without first shearing the head off). Having done all this, the base plate holding the element is still not moving.

If I knew what I'd see once I did remove it, I'd have an easier time figuring out how next to take this down without messing anything up permanently. Does anyone have pix or schematics of the Export taken apart?

Thanks in advance.

the one time I took the bottom plate of the boiler off was to change the pstat and the plate has to come off to get at the pstat nut on the fitting. Same thing, rusted hex head bolts, all 4 with the hex rusted away as well. Like you, had to drill them out but that rust is at least a good sign that they are not stainless but regular steel bolts....replace them with stainless when you get it all worked out. One really good tool is one of those long LED snake lights since you can put it in the boiler and actually see what your are doing....put a wooden dowel on the boiler base by threading the dowel past the element...you can see this really well with the light inside and give it a mallet blow, it should pop out once all 4 bolt heads are gone.