Banvil speed pull chain problem

[Jean Lemieux]

This is the other fan I got with the 4 Seasons Galaxy, a 1984, polished brass, Banvil 132 cm, ornate fan in the ''Emperor'' style.

The speed pull chain is stuck. I removed the switch cap to find that the speed pull chain have a brunt spot on the casting and an awful smell of burned plastic came out of there.

I bought a speed pull chain replacement, one of the Atron ZING EAR ones. The new pull chain have four wires while the old one have only three wires. By the way the wires from the old pull chain is connected to the fan's wires with taped wires nuts, it makes me think that this is not the original speed pull chain it has and that it was replaced before.

The new pull chain have a red (1), a black (L), a white (3) and a blue (2) wire. The old one have a red (2), blue (L) and brown (1) wire. Coming from the fan, capacitor and reverse pull chain (not counting the light kit wires) are three yellow wires, three blue wires, two black, one red and one brown wire. What do I do with that?

I drew a diagram and I haven't unconnected anything yet.

It says in the instructions that the wires should never be put together with only wires nuts but with pewter. Is this true or they just want us to be overly secure?

Here's the mess:


I wonder if Mike still have the antique brass one he have/had. He could help here. Even a Château could help. I believe that they have the same pull chain set up.
www.dtvintagefans.org/galleries/ceiling/banvil/MKBanvilDecoraFan.jpg

[Jean Lemieux]

Matt B. was the only one that answered so far. He wrote me that I should get a 3-way pull chain for this problem. The kind of 3-way pull chain that is usually used for light kits. I would need an input of another person just to be sure before I buy this type of pull chain.

[Cole S.]

I just really have no idea or I would've said something, the whole thing kinda seems rigged to me. If it were me I guess I'd try the 3-way pull but I don't know.

[Deleted]

A three speed pullchain that uses 3 wires is always, as far as I can recall, the "light kit" type 1, 2, 1+2.

When I first read this thread I thought it was a double layer pullchain, in which case I have no idea.

When in doubt, order the correct pullchain from SwitchCo,

[Jean Lemieux]

I'm updating this thread because this fan is still not fixed yet. The last thing I did on it was installing a 3-way pull chain because theses 1980's Banvils have a more unusual pull chain sequence where the speed pull chain only does the three speeds and the off is done with the reverse pull chain. With this pull chain installed it still does not work well. I get four speeds in disorder and the fan makes a weird noise on the two lower speeds.

The new pull chain is the black box on the left side. The red wire is 1, the blue is 2 and the black is L.

[Jean Lemieux]

Although I don't like doing that for fans that have their own speeds with their pull chain or other built-in control, I found an alternative for using this fan pleasantly way and not have it condemned to high speed only or for decorative purposes only. Because I get at least one of the speeds working correctly without that weird hum it makes on medium and low, not mentioning this weird 4th overly fast high speed, I get a correct working high speed. It's very powerful but silent. I decided to leave the speed pull chain set to that correct high speed and try it with a capacitive wall control and it works very well that way. A get nice and silent speeds, the medium being around 120 rpms and the low about 55 with the Copper Wiring Devices 3-speed rotary switch.

I only have motor only wall controls but in reality, the person that will want to use this fan for a permanent installation would have to have a dual light dimmer-motor speed control to be able to control the lights from the wall too.