EF3 Clunking Noise caused by motor.

Hey, Guys. Hope your winter has gone well.

Anyway, I've just started having an issue with my EF3.

A few days ago, the stove started to shut off every now and then. Yesterday, I had the time to clean out the hopper and have a look. Looking at the motor, I discovered that the "set collar" (I think you call it: attaches the motor shaft to the auger) was not tight as the bolt had loosened. Of course, this caused the auger to stop turning. I also noticed that screw caused some stripping as I saw some metal flakes around the motor shaft. So, I resituated the shaft correctly, tightened the collar back up, and all seemed fine.

Now, the main problem I'm having is this:

When full with pellets, the motor is moving and "rubbing" against the metal arm that it rests on. This causes a loud clunking sound as it "snaps". When there are no pellets, it's fine as it's not working as "hard" to move the auger. I had heard that clunking a few times throughout the winter, but never thought much of it as it was very infrequent.

But, now, it's a constant thing since my problems in the first paragraph. So, I'm wondering if those problems have now caused this for some reason.

This is a new motor that I just put in about this time last year. I tried to take it out to have a look, but I can't get the danged thing to release from the auger.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Thanks, Nailer.

Yes, the motor is resting properly against the bar, as I said. Something is out of alignment, or perhaps messed up with the motor, but I can't figure out what.

The only thing I can think to do is put a piece of metal between the bar and the motor to see if that helps. But, that's just taking away the symptom and not curing the problem.

skinanbones said:

does the metal arm the motor rest on still have the rubber hose covering it ? Because if not thats where most of the noise is coming from. I think it's 1/2 inch clear rubber line that enviro uses to go around that arm to quieten up the motor some

Click to expand...

Well, that's interesting. No, it doesn't have that rubber hose...and it never has. It's been extremely quiet for the last 4 seasons without it, so...

Anyway...I ended up putting a couple strips of duct tape (until I get some high-temp tape) on the side of the motor and that's stopped it. Still perplexed as to why it started doing it all the sudden, but I don't have the time or money to do anything more than the tape fix for the remainder of this season. I'll worry about it next.