I loaded a fresh bag of Green Supreme Pellets in my stove on Friday afternoon. Within about 10 minutes I started to hear it. About once a minute for 3 or 4 auger power cycles. There was a distinct metal on metal scraping/squealing noise.
I emptied the hopper into a 5 gal. bucket. Then got out the vacuum and with the auger on max speed I cleaned out the entire tube. I ran it until I knew the tube was completely empty and no longer feeding pellets into the drop chute (top feeder).
With the tube empty I noticed it only squealed when the bottom of the helix came around to the top of the fill chute. And even then it only squealed 3 or 4 times. I did notice the auger had a bit of play along its axis. I could move it up and down the chute about 1/8"
So I pulled the exhaust vent and the OAK and spun the stove around where I could remove the rear panel. I disconnected the electrics to the auger motor and unscrewed the locking shaft color form the bottom of the auger. I pulled the motor and gearbox off and set it aside. Next I unscrewed the four mounting bolts and pulled out the auger. Careful inspection showed the brass bushing was galled up fairly bad on its bearing surface. I pulled off the bushing plate and cleaned it up with a 3/4" round wire brush. When put back together and when rotated by hand I was able to get the auger and bushing to squeal. I figured I had to clean up the bearing surface. So for a quick fix I lapped the surface of the brass bushing on a granite plate with 80 grit aluminum oxide sandpaper. I lapped it down until the worn ridges disappeared. I put it all back together. I gave each wear surface a shot of graphite powder. I fired her up and let the auger tube fill.
So far, after 7 hours no more squeaks or squeals. So far so good. I will be giving hearthtools.com an order for a new brass bushing. I'm sure between wear and tear and my taking about .030" off the surface it is no longer within spec.
BTW: Be careful opening the gearbox. There are lots of bushings and cogs that kind of fall out when you open it. DAMHIKT.
Took me about 20 minutes to get it back together.
---Nailer---
I emptied the hopper into a 5 gal. bucket. Then got out the vacuum and with the auger on max speed I cleaned out the entire tube. I ran it until I knew the tube was completely empty and no longer feeding pellets into the drop chute (top feeder).
With the tube empty I noticed it only squealed when the bottom of the helix came around to the top of the fill chute. And even then it only squealed 3 or 4 times. I did notice the auger had a bit of play along its axis. I could move it up and down the chute about 1/8"
So I pulled the exhaust vent and the OAK and spun the stove around where I could remove the rear panel. I disconnected the electrics to the auger motor and unscrewed the locking shaft color form the bottom of the auger. I pulled the motor and gearbox off and set it aside. Next I unscrewed the four mounting bolts and pulled out the auger. Careful inspection showed the brass bushing was galled up fairly bad on its bearing surface. I pulled off the bushing plate and cleaned it up with a 3/4" round wire brush. When put back together and when rotated by hand I was able to get the auger and bushing to squeal. I figured I had to clean up the bearing surface. So for a quick fix I lapped the surface of the brass bushing on a granite plate with 80 grit aluminum oxide sandpaper. I lapped it down until the worn ridges disappeared. I put it all back together. I gave each wear surface a shot of graphite powder. I fired her up and let the auger tube fill.
So far, after 7 hours no more squeaks or squeals. So far so good. I will be giving hearthtools.com an order for a new brass bushing. I'm sure between wear and tear and my taking about .030" off the surface it is no longer within spec.
BTW: Be careful opening the gearbox. There are lots of bushings and cogs that kind of fall out when you open it. DAMHIKT.
Took me about 20 minutes to get it back together.---Nailer---
