I'm pretty sure this is a lost cause, but I'm posting out of interest;

Due to mishandling while lubricating a squeaky shaft inside my household pedestal fan, I've snapped off one of the coil wires (the one leading from the purple wire below) - now, I might sand it back and solder it and shield it with heat shrink tubing / electrical tape myself, but the problem is, I can't find out where in the coil that it snapped from. Probably snapped off under some bit of tape or down inside where I can't see it.

I'm assuming, this is a literal "find a needle in a haystack" situation and we probably just replace the motor when this happens. Is there no other way to connect this wire back up again?

Below is an overall picture of the coil, and then a close up of the wire I snapped.

 

If there's no wire sticking out then it broke off inside and there is no "slack" to pull it out even if you do find it. But by all means, dig around, maybe I'm wrong, but be aware that in doing so, you'll probably damage the enamel insulation on the other wires.

Assuming this is a cheap consumer grade fan as it looks, you probably won't find a replacement motor and if you do, it probably won't be any cheaper than a new fan.

 

Hi,

I had this happen once too, and i had to scrap the fan. I had already replaced the thermal protection fuse, and that didnt help this time, so i replaced the start capacitor, and that didnt help either, and then noticed that the wiring looked damaged inside the coil birds nest. I kept the parts and chucked out the fan and got a new one. That's the only way sometimes.

The new fan was not the best choice however, and i say this to benefit the readers. The new fan had a plastic guard while the old fan had a metal guard. The plastic guard does not stay on all the time so i had to tie wrap the darn thing on. It is also a bit flimsy.
So be careful when you do buy a new one that it is not too cheaply made or it gets annoying.

 

The new fan had a plastic guard while the old fan had a metal guard. The plastic guard does not stay on all the time so i had to tie wrap the darn thing on.

I've got one with a metal guard that needed the tie wraps too.

 

Thanks for your input guys. I guess it's as much of a disaster as I thought. Lesson learned - I will treat wire winding like sparrows eggs from now on.

And yeah this fan had lasted over 10 years and was a decent one too, pedestal fan with solid build, remote control, and I looked after it - probably would've gone another 10 for all I know. Bought one of those ridiculously cheap $12 pedestal fans from Bunnings to tide me over while I'm saving money. I don't expect it to last nearly as long

 

I've got one with a metal guard that needed the tie wraps too.

Hi,

Oh ok

I guess the metal guard fan i had was fairly good quality but the pure plastic one was not so well designed. It fails apart so easy.
Blows well though, pretty strong wind.