Auger Squeal on P68

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Pull the auger and clean it. Where in so md Im in hughesville.
 

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wow- auger squeel to blueberries? whouda thunk?!

If you folks would do something about those speed bumps maybe we wouldn't have to worry about auger squeal and we could be exchanging decent blueberry recipes on cookingwithblueberries.com instead.
 
OK. So how did you make out with your auger squeal ??
 
What I find interesting is I keep hearing about the dreaded Harman squeal. I'm on my 4th winter with my Harman and outside of the occasional squeal when a pellet gets stuck, I've never had the problem. Yet back when my PDVC was my primary stove, I had the problem all the time. I had to chip carbon out of the auger tube constantly. But I've never heard anyone complain about them squealing at all, only the Harmans. And I was burning top end pellets like Cubex and Okies in the PDVC.
 
What I find interesting is I keep hearing about the dreaded Harman squeal. I'm on my 4th winter with my Harman and outside of the occasional squeal when a pellet gets stuck, I've never had the problem. Yet back when my PDVC was my primary stove, I had the problem all the time. I had to chip carbon out of the auger tube constantly. But I've never heard anyone complain about them squealing at all, only the Harmans. And I was burning top end pellets like Cubex and Okies in the PDVC.
well, the Englanders dont cost what the Harman's do either, so they get more leeway. Its kinda like Tom Brady. Won 3 superbowls. Wife who has killer good looks and ALOT of $$$. Puts a big target on your back.
 
Pull the auger and clean it. Where in so md Im in hughesville.

sorry for the late reply...im in hughesville as well...the squeal is still there, havn't pulled the auger yet, after cleaning the fines box, i could see the end of the auger and it is silver. i tool a blower vac and try to blow out dust/slide plate..lots of fines came out but same issue
 
Pulling auger lets you...

See if auger / motor / cam are all connected properly and snuggly.

If bushing is spinning free / full of grit.

Lets you re-align bushing/auger so you know it is spinning freely.

Clean / Scrape entire auger tube.

Clean auger.

Good luck!
 
sorry for the late reply...im in hughesville as well...the squeal is still there, havn't pulled the auger yet, after cleaning the fines box, i could see the end of the auger and it is silver. i tool a blower vac and try to blow out dust/slide plate..lots of fines came out but same issue

Eventually all stoves need Super Auger Service.

You need to Pimp Up Your Auger! See our blog with pics - Don't forget the Hi Temp "Dry Moly Spray"
http://www.eastcoasthearth.com/1_108_Pimp-Up-Your-Auger.html
 
Update:

Let the hopper and auger run empty on pellets. Cleaned the fine box, blew out any dust with air hose, could not feel any stuck pellets. I think removed all creosote from the auger opening (took a screw driver and steal brush and went away at it)

Turned stove on test mode...sqeeeeeeekk, it only squeal when the cam roller wheel was at the 8 o'clock position. I then took some 3-1 oil (the kind that has the extender tube on it which helps alot) and oiled the back and front auger motor shaft that goes into the cam bolt, also put a little oil on feeder bushings. Turned the stove back into test mode...sqeeeeeeeeeeek.

After I said a few cussing words, I decided to listen more closely. The noise was coming from the back of the auger, where it goes into the stove.
Hmmmm, I look at the cam bolt and there is a small opening before the auger goes into the stove. TheMightyJoe has a picture (1st picture) on it in his thread for removing and cleaning the auger..

I turned on the stove, let it fire. As the feed motor engaged, i took the 3-1 oil and put a few drops in this tiny space. As the cam bolt moved, I could see the oil moving with it. Instead of sqeeeeeeeeek, it was sqeeeeek. Interesting. I let the feed motor start again and as it was rotating, placed more oil. I did this about 4 times.

It has been 2 days and squeal free
 
update:

squeal came back, so i want to remove the auger.
removed the 2 bolts on the auger plate but the auger will not come out (it had play in it)

looks like there is a bracket screwed to the auger moter (not cam bolt) that has 2 bushings, looks like that it was pushed (by factory) onto the rod (where the feeder lever is welded).

does the bracket come off that rode, with a little force since its never been removed before? seems it should just slide off

also, any tricks on disconnecting the electric wires, seem to be hard to disconnect
 
as far as the electric wires just wiggle them back and forth while pulling them apart, if you try to just pull hard they will break, just keep working them back and forth and they should come off fairly easily.
 
Could the type of the pellets used have anything to do with the dreaded Harmon squeal? I'm burning FU's this year and I have only an occasional small squeal that goes away after the weekly major scrape. The last two years it was GS's with more fines and more auger squeal. The average pellet length is also much shorter causing a tighter more dense auger feed pushing the fines into the burn area. I have much less hard carbon build up in the fire pot too. It also been colder this year than any since I started burning pellets. Could a higher operating temperature and higher feed rate lessen build up in the auger tube? I have my doubts that the noise originates at the back of the auger. With my stove, I think in the front of the auger were the combustion byproducts accumulate is the problem.
 
the stove was fine for the 1st part of last year, I always used lignetics, well the 2nd ton that I got of lignetics (green bag) there was a lot of dust/fines. about half way through the ton, that's when the squeal started. I've switched brans to Statesman (Southern States) but the problem is there...i'm thinking there is a build up of the fines
 
update:

squeal came back, so i want to remove the auger.
removed the 2 bolts on the auger plate but the auger will not come out (it had play in it)

looks like there is a bracket screwed to the auger moter (not cam bolt) that has 2 bushings, looks like that it was pushed (by factory) onto the rod (where the feeder lever is welded).

does the bracket come off that rode, with a little force since its never been removed before? seems it should just slide off

also, any tricks on disconnecting the electric wires, seem to be hard to disconnect

The 2 bolts should allow you to remove the auger and motor. There is a bolt that ties the auger to the motor that you could remove first. There is some room for adjustment if something is rubbing back there. If you pull them both, you can use a small wire brush to clean out the tube real good, check out the auger.
 
if you look a your auger/motor picture in your how t
The 2 bolts should allow you to remove the auger and motor. There is a bolt that ties the auger to the motor that you could remove first. There is some room for adjustment if something is rubbing back there. If you pull them both, you can use a small wire brush to clean out the tube real good, check out the auger.

If you look at the auger/motor pictures on your how-to-guide, there is a bracket that is bolted on your motor, looks like its a support bracket (where the zip ties are at), it has a bushing with the round opening. that appears to be keeping me from removing the auger, it seems like it should slide off

picture with box around the brack im referring too below

video of squeal, not a good one, volume may need to be turned up
View My Video
 

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You don't need to pull that off. Open your fines cover and rotate it out of the way. Just don't go to far or it will come out if the groove of the slide plate.
 
I had the dreaded harmon squeal. I could not make it stop no matter what I tried. Removed my auger and found a pellet stuck between the auger and the bearing block. Removed the pellet and noticed harmon leaves about a 3/32 gap between auger and bearing block at manufacturing. I took a hammer and punch and tapped the auger edge back until there was about .020 gap between auger and bearing block. Have to make sure you don't move it so far as to have auger rub on block. If you look close at photo, you can see where the auger was originally located. Hope this helps.
 

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miteclipse, how did you make out ??
 
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