drive motor

[stan69]

I think my drive motor just went....I took the motor out cause it stopped feeding and my stove shut off...
the pin snapped off , the pellets are a little longer than usual, and we think the pellets jammed the auger and possibly seized the motor.....my question is , is the motor supposed to spin freely ???
it wont spin at all , so im thinking it is seized ...
thanks in advanced...

 

[Bioburner]

Most gear reduction motor assemblies are hard to turn by hand. If you state what stove or put in signature others can more readily help.

 

[stan69]

I have a 5500M USSC pellet stove...

 

[Bioburner]

I would try the motor out of the stove and hook it up to power with a power cord to rule out the auger jam.

 

[Doug Doty]

It looks like it is driven with a spring clip like mine and my dealer said they have sold a few replacment clips when i bought mine. Sounds like it can shear in a jam situation

 

[stan69]

how do I use a power cord to check it ??

I would try the motor out of the stove and hook it up to power with a power cord to rule out the auger jam.

 

[Doug Doty]

Need to cut the female off a cheap extension cord and crimp on a couple of 1/4" female spade connectors to test with 120v, just plug them onto the motors spade connectors and plug the cord into the wall or power outlet for direct power to the motor.

 

[stan69]

Need to cut the female off a cheap extension cord and crimp on a couple of 1/4" female spade connectors to test with 120v, just plug them onto the motors spade connectors and plug the cord into the wall or power outlet for direct power to the motor.

im not gonna die am I...HAHAHA.....J/K,,,,thanks guys,,
can I use an old lamp cord ??

 

[Dhosh]

Yes ... old lamp cord would work.
You can also pull the motor of the gear assembly. to see if the motor itself is free. If you have the motor/drive assembly off the auger ... does the auger move freely? It has a bearing set that could conceivably seize up.

Taking the motor off the gearbox, still doesn't test the motor itself.

Does your unit have a diagnostics mode, where you can run each motor independently. That might be safer than messing with the cord (although that's pretty easy to do as well.)

 

[Doug Doty]

You might but it is the price of heat JK... just realize the two new spade plugs you add on the ends are 120v hot anytime the cord is plugged in so attach to the motor first then the wall outlet, remove from the wall outlet before handling the spade connectors /

 

[stan69]

thanks guys for bearing with me on this....ive never had problems with this and I know nothing about stoves....I appreciate all the help..

I did the cord test and the motor spins....very slow..not sure how fast its supposed to move but it moved.....I even tried to hold the pin to see if any resistance would stop it and it didn't stop spinning....
im gonna hook back up and see what happens...i'll check auger again to make sure nothing is in there again....
thanks guys...

 

[stan69]

well.....I hooked it back up ......its spinning...intermitting spin for amount of pellets...I have no friggin clue why it didn't work....thanks guys
hope it continues to work.....now the only thing we can think of is the pellets are longer than normal....maybe they jammed up the auger itself...no clue....
thanks again for dealing with a newbie...

 

[Doug Doty]

You can briefly test the motor on the extension cord while installed and hooked to the auger as a final test.

 

[stan69]

its working fine......im still thinking its the longer pellets possibly binding up the auger.....no clue....atleast that's what im hoping..LOL....

we're gonna go get some more pellets today from a different store to see if they smaller....

 

[SidecarFlip]

Length of pellets should hasve no impact on the auger. Shaded pole drives make miniscule power but when you take 1800 rpm and reuce it to 1 rpm through triple compound reduction, your optput shaft is makinging some serious torque, more than enough to crush lowly wood pellets. I believe what occured was you got something foreign in the pellets, maybe a metal part from the pellet making process. That would jam an auger.

Why, when burning corn, you want magnetically cleaned corn. Things like nuts and bolts often wind up in shelled corn plus magnetically cleaned shelled corn keeps down 'hardware disease' in cattle.