Converting Clarke 160T to Euro Connector

Having bought a nearly new 160T with the torch absent and Clarke (and their agent) not wanting to talk to me, I got on with converting it to a Euro style torch and decided to take pics so that those of you who'd want to do the same could maybe benefit from my efforts.

The 160T has a sloping front which complicated things a bit. I fashioned a bracket that squared things up and allowed me to position the socket in relation to the drive unit. A far easier solution would be to turn a nylon spacer with a slope but I decided to use the basic tools at hand at the time.



Note that the wire enters the back of the socket offcentre so had to allow for this during the positioning. I fitted the torch lead to the socket as this influences the position of the socket in its housing and acts as a stop for the brass inner ferrule-sleeve.



Drill the clamp to a bit smaller than the new wire ferrule (or leave the clamp screws a teeny bit slack (I think i used a 4.8mm drill for this but check yours first)



Needed a gas solenoid so bought a 240V one and connected it across J1-J3 as per fitting instructions. Had some sound advice from some of the chaps on this forum regarding this and may modify for gas purging later..

I made a little angle bracket to hold the solenoid valve



I soldered them and used some heat shrink sleeving (as it's 240V !!) The earth was connected too of course !!



The existing (Clarke) small gauge brown lead I connected to the White torch lead of the Euro socket and the Brown lead i connected to the Torch +VE (the heavy gauge wire that links the rectifier to the Euro connector. I have yet to make a heavy fly lead for this .....





ta da!!

Good job and write up.

The washer is a good idea. When I converted mine to a Tweco connector, I slid some 1/2" heater hose over the tube. That allowed the clamp to work better.

Excellent work there, might just insipre me to get on with pimping my 160t, welds fine just the leads are too da** short....

Thank you for posting this, Have you upgraded the earth lead yet?
Dusty

Dusty said:

Excellent work there, might just insipre me to get on with pimping my 160t, welds fine just the leads are too da** short....

Thank you for posting this, Have you upgraded the earth lead yet?
Dusty

Click to expand...

Yes, stop making excuses and dive in!. What's the worst that can happen.......

I've not upgraded my earth yet...or put the patch lead between the rectifier and Euro socket. I'm hoping to lay my hands on a bit of lead that'll serve the two purposes. May use a lead off my stick welder..... I can feel an earth socket installation coming on ....someone stop me....

Thats an Idea 'my tig/mma's got a good earth lead/clamp if'n i could just plug from one't other.....

....then make a new trolley to mount the Mig and the tig and the Plasma and Two big bottles, rods, filler rods, clamps etc...... ....er er hang on a mo.

And to think all it took was the wife saying yes dear, you can have a projet landy!!!!!

Oh Bug*** roll on pay day.......

Mig welding

hi i have on litel problem
i have on clarke 100E mig welder
and bay on euro torch the trabel is the cabel conect from the gas vale to the welder is 3 kabel braun blue and yelo i have not idea woht for cabel coming on woht

Need to do this on Sealey Supermig 170.

Some Monkey left the torch lead too close to the garage heater

It's my first post so be gentle with me!

I've had a brief look around on ebay and found this kit http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/EURO-MIG-TORC...ultDomain_3?hash=item19b865816c#ht_1684wt_940

What do you guys reckon to that price??

Cheers

Monkey

Hi Monkey. The euro kit you spotted on ebay is also available from the same supplier, with a MB15 torch for less money and would probably be fine for your machine especially if it is mainly low-medium power settings you use. If you are using your machine on top settings alot then the MB25 torch might be better.

i have a clarke 135 turbo willthis convert to a euro torch very onterasting reading on this site many thanks . OSO ( located in very wet southern spain)

The Clarke will convert to a euro torch but you have to ask yourself if it's worth doing on such a small machine.

thanks for advice just trying to get the best from wot i got

im fitting one of these to my clarke 150EN has anyone got any links to some diagrams as i got nothing with my kit. im just a bit unclear where things connect.

I did my 131te mk2 recently and it was very straight forward on my machine (the front panel already had a plastic cover with the bolt holes pre drilled for a euro torch!)

My install went something like this
remove old torch - making note of what goes where - as it goes back pretty much as it does on the euro fitting

clean up the ring terminal (left dangling from the stage above) and slide euro connector through and nip up (IIRC there weree a couple of brass washers each side of the ring terminal)

cut a length of hose to pack out where it gets clamped in the feed housing (the OP used a washer)

Drill out the hole that the wire feed pipe goes through (this was the point of no return for me)
trim the brass wire feed pipe to the right length and nip up

fit gas hose from solenoid to euro connector gas inlet

crimp 2 terminals onto the 2 wires dangling out the euro connector and push into old trigger connector

Fit plastic face

tighten everything up after making sure everything was "in line"

turn machine on and grin from ear to ear now the feed gremlins have gone
(yes I /could/ and /should/ have replaced the liner somewhere along my 20 odd years of ownership for a lot less)

From start to finish it possibly took me an hour - with brew, e-cig and photo breaks
measure things several times before cutting or comitting and take your time

Until the hole is drilled out to accomodate the brass wire tube its reversible
This part caused me to pause for some time till I talked myself into going for it!

I know I took lots of pictures of before during and after...I just cant find them on the PC

If your machine had a trigger operated gas valve in the gun head it will not be quite this easy and will involve fitting an electric gas solenoid and finding somewhere suitable to tap power from - not a massive issue or extra cost though

Good luck and shout up if you get stuck
Regards
Rob

thanks for that rob. i think the 2 wires for the solenoid go to the top 2 terminals on the pcb. my solenoid is a 24v one but where ive read other people have used a 240v one? does this matter?

so far ive got the plastic part fitted to the front of the welder and ive drilled out the part which held the old plastic liner to fit the new metal part.
ive got the wires attached to the solenoid ready and i just need a big ring terminal for the main power to the torch.

so the 2 new red wires coming out of the euro torch connector just go to the same places as the 2 old brown wires from the old torch? i thought i read that one goes to the body of the euro connector or have i got that wrong?

if you could find those pics i think they would be really helpful.

You will need a 240V solenoid.

thanks for that shenion. ive about got my head round this now. i will see if they will send me a 240v solenoid instead of this 24v one.

just to confirm, the main thick power wire goes to the body on the connector, as does one of the smaller wires from the torch and the other goes to the rectifier where the original torch wire connected.

the gas solenoid connects to j1 and j2 on the pcb?

The two trigger wires should go to where the old torch trigger wires connecet. I do not believe the EN models had one trigger wire connected to the main power lead.

The main power lead goes to the body of the connector.

The solenoid should go to J1 and J2 but some manuals have the pins numbered differently. J1 and J2 should lead to the power switches (1/2 Max/Min), J3/4 goes to the main power switch.

my model can do gas and no gas welding so you can swap the leads over so i think thats why mine had the 2 thin brown wires going to original torch.

im pretty sure where the thick wire that goes to the torch comes from the same place as one of the thin original brown wires on the rectifier with ring terminals.

my pcb doesnt have the j1-j4 connectors marked up but i can follow the wires to see which ones go to the min/max switch and the on off switch
thanks for the help.

Hey can some help me.
I have a Clark mig150 and the torch is with one wire for the tricker. How can i convert to euro connection