Milwaukee cordless M12 drill trouble shooting

[BFBOB]

I've looked over some of the tool gurus' offerings on the interntet, but nothing seems to address my problem. I have two of the smaller M12 battery powered Milwaukee drills, one a hammer-drill (Not to be confused with a rotary hammer!) and the other just a drill. Nice, compact units, fit well into an old steel Milwaukee drill box with charger and room to spare. Just today, in the middle of a job, the straight drill conked out. It's catalog no. 2407-20, and had worked flawlessly up until then. The batteries were getting a bit low on both drills, so I charged them up and went back to work.

Here's what the 2407-20 does: insert battery, and the work illuminator light comes on for 7 seconds. Then it goes out. Pull the trigger and the right hand battery condition light (the minus light) gives 3 quick flashes and goes out. That's it. spindle does not spin, no sound of a motor trying to spin. Every time I pull the trigger, it flashes that same light and that's all. If I let it sit for some minutes or remove and reinstall the battery, it lights the work illuminator again and the goes back to the 3 battery condition flashes.

The battery works perfectly in the hammer-drill as does the other battery. Both batteries perform as I've described above in the straight drill.

In a sense it doesn't matter, since I've already ordered a replacement drill -- they're not very expensive -- but it annoys me to have such an odd problem, and no clues to figure it out. And if it turns out to be something repairable, I'll have a spare!

 

[assassin10000]

I'd run the serial number through Milwaukee's service and see if it's still under warranty.

Milwaukee Service Dashboard

service.milwaukeetool.com

 

[dnschmidt]

I think there are some YouTube videos about this issue. The problem is the battery connection to the tool. I forget what that problem exactly is but as I remember it that's the root cause.

 

[RTM]

I took would look for fouled up connectors on your straight drill. Dirty, bent, corroded, so many options.

 

[BFBOB]

Wow, the collective mind of GJ strikes again! The drill is over 2 years old, so it didnt' occur to me it might be under warranty. Thanks to Assassin100000, with an easy link to follow, I found out it has a 5 year warranty. So, off it goes to be fixed!

 

[BFBOB]

Re: battery contacts - I saw a couple of YT bits on this issue. The problem is the overheat terminal on the battery gets bent inward so it doesn't make contact with the drill. This makes the drill think the battery is overheated, so it won't work. I tried springing out the contact a little and it didn't help. A little thought told me it wouldn't -- remember I have two nearly identical drills and batteries. Switching the batteries from one to the other proved that the problem is in the drill, not the battery. The hammerdrill works fine with both batteries; the straight drill doesn't work, and has the same malfunction, with either battery.

RTM, your point is well taken, but that was the very first thing I tried- looking up with a strong flashlight into the handle at the battery connections. Shiny-clean, not bent.

Thanks to all of you!