Harman Advanced Auger Motor Noise -- Not Squeek

[Alan]

I'm having continued auger motor noise. When the auger motor comes on, the is a grinding/buzzing sound coming from the motor. If you stick your finger in the hole of the final gear (the exterior one that moves the auger chain) and give it a little push in the direction of rotation, thereby reducing the load on the motor just slightly, the noise goes away.

My dealer replaced the motor once, and the replacement had less noise...but now it's back.

I know there will be some noise with the moving chain, auger itself, and clinking pellets, but the grinding noise is driving me crazy. Are there a lot of bad gear-reduction motors out there?

 

[GVA]

can you check to see if the output shaft moves in and out of the gearbox.
The final reduction gear is only about 1/4" thick. Subtract the amount of movement in the output shaft. That is the amount of the final gear that is meshing with the gear right before it.
That is, too much endplay will grind the gears apart in that gearbox....
Double check the alignment of the gearbox and make sure the (four mounting) insulating grommets are in good shape and not dry rotted..
And saw it happen on mine once the mount plate was actually bent out of line with the auger...

 

[Alan]

Everything looks in good shape...no bent mounting plate, and not too much in/out shaft movement.

The original motor was from Merkle-Korff. I checked on their web site & they didn't have a stock CCW motor that could be used. I called them up & they told me it was a custom motor only sold to Harmon.

The replacement motor was from Gleason Avery, & they have the motor on their web site -- about $80.

I also found the motor avaliable from woodheatstoves.com for $140 & from http://stores.ebay.com/Pellet-Stove-Parts-com-Store for $138, but I don't know what brand they sell, or the relative quality of any of them.

 

[GVA]

most of these motors can be reversed simply by flipping the stator over

The gleason is standard with a 1/2" output shaft.
the custom gleason for harman is 3/8" output shaft.Gleason will sell the custom to you but I think you need to buy a min of 5....

You're Harman dealer should have these in stock anyway for about $78....

how old is the stove?
How old is the replacement motor?

 

[Alan]

The stove was installed last Oct ('07) & the auger motor replace a few months later. Because of smoke issues, to date I've only burned less than 1.5 tons.

Any idea about the quality of the various mfg. of the motors? Is the buzzing sound normal & something I'm being to picky about? Again, it's frustrating since only a few ounces of assist to the outer gear eliminates the noise.

 

[rap69ri]

most of these motors can be reversed simply by flipping the stator over

The gleason is standard with a 1/2" output shaft.
the custom gleason for harman is 3/8" output shaft.Gleason will sell the custom to you but I think you need to buy a min of 5....

You're Harman dealer should have these in stock anyway for about $78....

how old is the stove?
How old is the replacement motor?

The Gleason on their website is a standard 3/8 shaft: http://www.gleasonavery.com/catalog/pellet-corn-stove-motors.html

 

[GVA]

Wow looks like they are getting into the replacement market...
thier contract must have expired with Harman.
the 904-2520-A1506T-666 motor is no loger found on the site.
it does look like they resolved the bronze bushing failure though (based on the pic)