Thread: Zombie in the barrel quit rising

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Our Spirit Halloween Zombie in the barrel was working fine then suddenly stopped rising. The company doesn't give you any electrical schematics to troubleshoot and at this point I am stuck. He lights up, moans and groans, his jaw moves, but he doesn't move up and down.

Does anyone out there have ideas? I'd love to have him up and running for next year's Trick or Treat night.

D, what type of mechanism raises and lowers the zombie? air pressure, electric motor.... if it is a motor does it have a fuse? the fact that the lights etc. work the power supply sounds like it is still good. Do you have a volt meter? can you check if the operating mechanism is receiving power? Any pics you can post of the control circuits? I am willing to help in any way I can, I am no genius (like several here on the forum (Otaku this means you ) but will try Keith

The Zombie is motor driven. I'll post a few pictures on my web page later tonight since I don't have any online to link to yet. I can always use something new to blog about so why not the mechanical failure?

Here is my Zombie. http://doggonedmysteries.wordpress.c...ure-to-launch/

Can you hear the motor running?? If so then possibly a drive gear has come off the motor or there is a stripped gear. Can you manually raise him??

I can't raise or lower him manually, there is the sound of a motor running but...no way to see what is going on in there. I'm beginning to think he's a lost cause for movement but at least he lights up and makes noise.

This is an exploratory-surgery situation. Time to carefully gut it, keep a bowl for screws and a camera for documentation, and start tearing it apart. Test everything. Make sure parts aren't snapped or broken. Make sure pivots or sliders still move. Oil or lube needed? Check the motor with a voltmeter and maybe a power supply to directly test if it still works. Check wires.

It's gonna be an electronics classroom in your workshop, to get this figured out. But I bet you'll learn a lot in the process.

Yikes! Major exploratory surgery, huh? I'm guessing this means that my kitchen table is going to be out of commission for a while. (What workshop?!)

The workshop in your kitchen.


Heh heh heh. Been there many times.

Hmmm I could make a bad joke about cialis.....NAW.....

I would follow Bryan's advice but if you can't fix it, use a hammer. Yeah, it won’t fix it but you’ll feel better afterward, a little tired maybe but feeling a little better.