FAQ for alt.bread.recipes

Fixing a KitchenAid Mixer

Buy a small tub (one pound, I think is the common size) of all-purpose grease or wheel-bearing grease at a hardware store, Home Depot, Lowes, NAPA, Car Quest, etc., store. This should cost you about $3.

Get two blade screwdrivers, one medium sized and one a little smaller. I am working on my machine as I write this, and I'm using nothing but a Swiss Army Knife, the Soldier model with 4 blades.

UNPLUG THE MACHINE FROM THE WALL SOCKET. Put the plug in a small baggie and put a rubber band around it so the baggie doesn't fall off.

Take a small screwdriver and remove the screws holding the name strip around the machine and the rear cover. Carefully remove the name strip and set it aside. Remove the rear cover and set it aside. These are small Phillips screws, but if you don't have a small Phillips screwdriver (#1), you can get at them with a small blade screwdriver; since they aren't critical, it doesn't matter if they aren't gut-busting tight when you reinstall them.

Take the larger blade screwdriver and use it to remove the chromed ring around the nose of the gear area. Catch the blade on the top of the ring and rap the screwdriver smartly. The ring will drop off. Unless it's held by all sorts of food build-up. Then it will give way grudgingly and reveal stuff you'd forgotten you made.

Flip the machine on its back or side.

Look at the shaft that the dough hook and paddle attach to. Notice that there is a pin through the housing and the shaft. This pin attaches the housing to the shaft and prevents them from turning relative to each other. Take a very small steel or brass pin, something like a shish-kabob skewer or the awl on a Swiss Army Knife, hold it against one end of the pin, and rap the skewer or knife with something substantial.. Be very careful not to round over or mushroom the head of the pin. The pin should come free and begin to work its way out. Remove the pin completely.

Wiggle the lower housing a bit and see if it will pull free of the main housing. Usually they don't. Look at the area where the small screws are. Take a small screwdriver and pry the housing down from the screws. With a bit of cajoling and a few choice words, the piece will come off. You will be left looking at a set of eccentric gears in one hand and the gear ring still attached to the machine. There will be all sorts of nasty looking and nastier smelling stuff in the housing and on the gears. More on this later.

Notice that there are two sets of screws exposed.
1. Four larger slot head screws toward the read of the machine, and
2. Six smaller slot head screws around the gear area.

Remove all these screws and set them aside.

Being very gentle, break the machine apart so that the lower and upper parts of the body come apart. Be very careful of the gasket that seals the gear head surfaces. Be very careful not to put any strain on the wires that connect the upper and lower portions of the machine body.

You now have a look at the inside of the gear works.

On the main body of the machine you will see a large beveled gear set. This is the main gear. Sticking up from the same area is a smaller round gear set. This small round gear is the fail-safe that will strip from time to time. To replace this gear, you to remove the pin that holds it, remove the old gear, put in the new gear and replace the pin. I usually replace the pin at the same time, since the pin can become bent or mushroomed over.

Think of grease as being composed of two components: oil and soap. The oil is the lubricant and the soap is the carrier. The hard stuff is the old soap that has been left behind when the oil took a walk.

Clean out all the old grease. As you clean it out, look for pieces of metal that may have flaked off of gears. If you find any, try to figure out where they came from. I use Popsicle sticks and brake cleaner and a bunch of paper towels. Don't even think of using the new, "green" brake cleaners; they have water in them and don't work at all. When you get the old grease off and everything is clean and neat, take a close look at the small gear. It may be worn. If it is, make a note to order two and two pins to go with them. Also make a note to order two of the gaskets that you were careful not to destroy. If you are feeling flush, order a spare pin for the attachment shaft. You never know.

When you have finished admiring Hobart's work, slather a goodly amount of grease on and into all gear teeth, on all exposed shafts and anywhere else you think moving parts might wind up.

Working carefully, reverse the above disassembly procedure and put the machine back together.

Wipe everything carefully.

Pat yourself on the back.

Take the $50 you saved and buy something you wanted but didn't necessarily need.