Chicago Electric MIG 180 81295B Gun Install Step 1 First you will need to remove all the side panels on your machine. This is necessary to access everything for this install. Step 2 On the side with your wire feeder, you will need to remove the four screws that hold your gun to the wire feeder.
Step 3 On the same side of the machine you will need to disconnect the gas hose from the push-lock fitting. To do so you will push the plastic collar of the fitting toward the back of the machine and gently pull the hose out toward the front of the machine.
Step 4 You will then disconnect your guns power cable located below your wire feed mechanism. This cable is held in by one of two knobs, depending on if you have switched your polarity from the factory set reverse polarity. You will remove the knob that holds the cable with the red sheathing. On our machine this would be the cable on the right (negative side) as our machine has not been changed from the original factory setup. If you are running solid core wire you may have switched this cable to the positive side. Remove the correct knob and remove the cable from the post (this will be necessary to pull the cable out through the inside of the cabinet).
Step 5 Now you will go to the other side of the machine (referred to as the inside for the remainder of this walk-through). On the inside you will need to locate where your guns trigger wires, power cable, and gas hose come through from the wire feed side. This hole will be just on the other side of the wire feed mechanism that you just removed the 4 screws from. Once you have located this hole you will see 3 things, the gas hose (clear vinyl hose), power cable (this will be the bigger of the wires and it will be round), and the trigger wires (slightly thinner than the power cable and also it will have a flatter shape compared to the power cable).
Step 6 Now that you have located the above mentioned hole and wires, the next step will be to follow the trigger wires to the computer board in your machine. The trigger wires are hard wired into a 4 wire plug in your machine. The trigger wires will be the two covered in the black insulation as indicated below. You will want to cut the zip tie holding all the wires together and then cut the trigger wires, leave plenty of wire on the plug we will be attaching spade terminals to them next. The other two individual wires run to a small step-down transformer DO NOT CUT THESE.
Step7 With the segments of wires you left on the plug, strip the ends and you will attach two male spade terminals to the ends. You can also use butt connectors or solder them together but we prefer to use spade terminals in case there is ever a time where the gun needs to be removed again. Step 8 You should now have everything that runs to the gun detached from the machine. Pull the gas hose, power cable, and trigger wires through the hole that leads from the inside to the wire feed side. Once you have those through, you should be able to easily pull the gun out from the face of the machine.
Step 9 With your old gun out we can start with installing your new HTP 81295B (Or 81295-T10) gun. You will put your gun through the face of the machine just as the previous one was. The power cable, trigger wires, and gas hose will feed back through the hole to the inside of the machine (disregard the liner for the time being), make sure your strain relief is facing the correct direction when installing the gun.
Step 10 Once your trigger wires, power cable, and hose are on the inside of the machine you will route your gas hose the same way it was before you removed it and insert it firmly into the quick disconnect fitting. The trigger wires and power cable will run down behind the board.
Step 11 The trigger wires will lead back down to the computer board you cut the previous trigger wires from. You will then plug the trigger wires on your new gun into the newly attached spade terminals (orientation of these two wires is irrelevant).
Step 12 The power cable will run down and back out the hole that leads to the wire feed side. You will then return the cable to the terminal you removed it from. Our machine pictured is still set to the factory set reverse polarity.
Step 13 The steel cable sticking out the back of the gun with the hose and wires is your liner, this is what guides your welding wire to the tip of the gun and you will need to trim this to fit in the wire feeder. The liner should reach as close to the drive roll as possible without touching it, use your previous gun as reference to trim it. Once the liner is trimmed to the correct length you can then set the gun end and liner in place and replace the cover (the one with 4 screws that you removed at the beginning of this walk-through) that holds your gun to the wire feed mechanism. The liner and gun must remain in their intended grooves or your machine will not function properly. This can be tricky and can be made easier by laying the machine on its side (wire feed side facing up).