Identify this component. Vintage machine

Question

Good afternoon, first, let me start out by saying I know very little about electronics. I am a machinist, and am currently restoring/ repairing an old Brown and Sharpe grinder from the 1960's. On the grinder, it has was is called an "Electralign." That is used to adjust the grinder to remove any taper from a cylinder that you are grinding. The Electralign is out of order, so I am trying to fix it. I have traced the problem down to this component, that a wire was broken off of at the solder point. Per the description, "The Electalign uses the sensitive electrical resistance wire strain gage to detect swivel table movements..." The parts list calls this piece a "Transformer Assembly" 99-986-47. A small piece of metal, like a shim sits between the "U" shape, and I guess that is what give it its readings. Any help with a replacement part, or what I should even try and google search would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

It looks like that's a transformer where the primary and secondary are on separate coil forms and a piece of metal goes between them to alter the coupling. Basically it gives an output that's dependent on how much metal is between the coils.

This was probably a custom part, finding a replacement would probably be difficult if not impossible. It might be able to be repaired though by someone skilled in transformer winding. It might just need to have the broken wire unwound a turn to get a bit of length to reattach it, but that would depend on how it's wound and if there's nothing else wrong with it. Not something I would attempt without prior experience, the windings can be very small gauge easily broken wire.