Groaning Auger motor.. sometimes 7 yo Englander 55tripip

[kenstogie]

my auger motor is groaning .........sometimes.

i thought it was some stuck pellets in the chute and took out the auger/motor and cleaned it out...TWICE but still the motor groans...or should i say something intermittently groans only when the auger motor turns on,

it is fine and dandy for 30 mins, then a min of groaning. then fine for 15 mins and 20 secs of groaning, the fine for and hour, groans for xx number of secs .... no discernable pattern as far as i can tell...


-- i did not see any burrs or shiny metal on the auger to indicate misalignment but perhaps i am missing it.
-- is there an alignment procedure for the motor/auger / chute perhaps?
--is the motor just crapping out maybe.?
--any other ideas?

thanks and heres to short winter this year

 

[Mt Bob]

Sorry nobody answered you,there are some really smart England stove people here,I am not one of them. Anyway,yes,possible auger motor,or bearings,bushings,certain wood pellets,and,something people sometimes miss,chemicals from the wood leaves residue on the auger/and the tube(lignite) and makes the pellets drag.And lots do not clean their auger or the tube. Hopefully an England tech will chip in

 

[gfreek]

Maybe some ideas,,,Empty the hopper, disconnect the auger motor, check the auger bearing, spin the auger to be sure it spins free and and no hangups.. If it groans like a rotisserie motor then it's probably the auger motor..

 

[minux]

Take some WD40 high temp grease and spray. If it is spinning and make noise, sounds like the motor is in the fritz or the gears are coated in garbage. Start simple and apply grease on the gears.

 

[kenstogie]

thanks for the replies.... today i am going to yet again take it apart but this time i am going to take the auger and motor apart not just pull out the motor auger assembly.. the auger itself looks squeaky clean but not sure about the where the motor and auger connects.... i did buy another motor....

fwiw englander parts are usually often double the price (or more) of other after market stuff and though i do think in many cases OEM is better it is hard to logically argue they are 2x (or more) better.... JM2centsW....

 

[kenstogie]

Took it apart again... the auger and separated it from the motor... aligned everything and tightened it up... put it in diagnostic mode to make sure everything was moving properly.......

8 hours later and appears to be fixed... time will tell of course but for good.measure I replaced the auger set screws with something more robust and put some blue loctite on them...

 

[johneh]

Take the cover off the top of the motor and check the grease in the gears
dried out, missing, or contaminated?

 

[kenstogie]

Take the cover off the top of the motor and check the grease in the gears
dried out, missing, or contaminated?

well last night the motor just gave up.... took a while.... it didnt just stop working which would have been easier diagnostics but that's the way it goes .... luckily i orderd a another from the 'zon and came super quick (1 day)..... installed and running fine.... could be me but it seems to feed more pellets into the hopper. maybe with the newer stronger motor that's to be expected....

i did take apart the old one just to see and the gears were in fine shape and chock full o' grease. you need a torx (?) bit to take it apart to check and be careful gears can come off their spindles but still pretty ez.....

heres a englander video on how to do it i found after i already did it of course

 

[gfreek]

There ya go...Thanks for the update...

 

[kenstogie]

Here's the gears for a englander auger motor... this is a 2RPM clockwise motor they use for many stoves