Had a power outage and the wh40 is not turning back on

it should be a safety so doesnt burn up [ no water ] lots of places have well water or power surge upon power coming back on

Make sure there one silver and one black adjustable trip pins on the dial. One is for on abd one is for off.

1) Yes, the noise is from clock motor turning the gears.
When timer is new, parts have a bit of white grease on them.
Turn off power and spray WD 40 or apply some white grease and see if that helps.

2) Yes WG1573 240Volt clock motor is going bad.
Tip out mechanism using thumb spring located top inside box and check clock motor number.

Buy WG1573 240Volt clock motor and extra trippers from Granger number 1PNK2
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/timer-accessories/timers/electrical/ecatalog/N-8hi

http://waterheatertimer.org/How-to-wire-WH40.html

Notice on image below, there is a bit of white grease on lever.
This photo is from new WH40.

If this is new installation, you have Load wires and Breaker wires reversed.
http://waterheatertimer.org/How-to-wire-WH40.html
http://waterheatertimer.org/images/WH40-water-heater-circuit-5.jpg


Hot wires from breaker connect to terminals 1 and 3 ... notice also there are small white wires connected to terminals 1 and 3.
Small white wires go to 240Volt clock motor located on back of mechanism, so these terminals have to be Hot all the time so clock motor is ON all the time >> thus hot wires from breaker connect to same terminals that have small white wires.

Load wires to water heater connect to terminals 2 and 4

Reverse your wires and things should work fine.

If this is new installation, check wiring. Hot and Load wires might be reversed.
Check that ON OFF trippers are both attached to yellow dial.
http://waterheatertimer.org/How-to-wire-WH40.html

If timer worked fine before, and started missing recently, then tripper pins probably worn out.
Trippers contact mechanical lever, and push lever on-and-off.
Trippers are softer metal and designed to wear out before lever.
If lever is worn out, timer needs to be replaced, but try new trippers first.
Buy trippers at Grainger
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/INTERMATIC-Timer-Tripper-2E054?Pid=search
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/timer-accessories/timers/electrical/ecatalog/N-8hi

How WH40 timer works:
Clock motor rotates dial.
ON-OFF trippers on dial contact lever.
ON tripper pushes lever one direction.
OFF tripper pushes lever other direction.
Lever moves electrical contacts together, or pulls contacts apart.
When lever moves on-and-off, manual override lever also snaps back and forth with audible clicking sound.
Using q-tip, add touch of white grease to lever where trippers contact.

If I understand correctly, you have the WH40 water heater timer.

If timer dial will not rotate, then use manual override to turn on circuit to water heater.
If manual override will not move back and forth, the tripper pin might be wedged against the lever.
Lift and rotate dial out of way.
If manual override does not click back-and-forth, then timer is probably bad.
If manual override clicks, but water heater does not turn on, then check electricity.

If you need more help, post a comment and I will respond

DO NOT attempt to move the pointer!

With the power OFF, pull and hold the timer dial OUT. Twist the dial in either direction to align the current time with the pointer. Let the dial return to the original (in) position. You'll have to do this whenever DST changes and after power outages.

The manual for the WH40 can be downloaded for free, here.

Please rate this reply - thanks!

Hi,
My experience with these is that there is no way to fix them. The power surge either took out the motor that runs the time clock or it took out the contacts that close to feed power to the water heater. In either case the best fix is to replace the timer. If you get a new one like what you have, it is very easy to pop the board out of the metal box and then all you have to do is rewire the new board exactly as the old one is.

heatman101

The catch pins might be loose, or the switch may be worn out. It may be time to replace the timer