Auger Not Turning


 
JimK said:
Did the motor itself fail, or just the connection to the auger?
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The motor itself failed. The one they sent as a replacement had some issue because it would feed the pellets at the wrong rate, so I had pellet overflow every time I tried to use it. They sent me a list a mile long to try to troubleshoot it and nothing worked. They ended up just sending me a Searwood and took the Smokefire back.
 
Timothy F. Lewis said:
Genius! Broken shear pin $.08, replacement motor and auger, $50.00 seems a little odd.
(prices are purely conjecture)no bearing on reality whatsoever.
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If you look at it the shear pin is seized into the shaft.
Can you drill it out or drive it out with a punch? Sure/maybe, but Weber doesent know if some people are comfortable doing that so probably easier for them to just send out a whole new assembly.
 
That's very interesting. The assembly looks identical to the Smoke Fire assembly. If you want to use it this weekend, just go down to the hardware store and buy a SS screw. I once used a finish nail back when they used a cotter pin. And to be perfectly honest, that finish nail held up better than some of the replacements Weber sent
 
JimK said:
That was my first question. If that thing had somehow welded itself in there, I wanted a new motor as well. But I was able to simply poke it out with a toothpick.
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How's the other side?
Same or can you use a punch or nail set to drive it out?
 
timothy said:
How's the other side?
Same or can you use a punch or nail set to drive it out?
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Only a small piece of the bolt/pin remained in the hole. So I was able to poke through the opposite side of the hole with the toothpick and the little bolt piece popped right out.

IMG_2087.jpeg
 
New auger arrived yesterday. It's been raining for days and looks like it will continue into the weekend. Someday, I'll install it.
 
Well, the sun is finally out and I got the new auger installed this morning. A few hiccups after I fired it up. The first time, it started right up, pellets were feeding and the glow plug was glowing. I set the temp for 350 and 5-7 minutes later the temp was reading 71 and not climbing (air temp was about 62 at the time). It looked like the glow plug had gone out. I shut it down, but never got a notification that the shut down was complete. I went out to inspect and the grill was off and the fire pot was full of pellets. I unplugged, cleaned out the pot and started again with a 350 temp. This time, the controller kept restarting every 5 seconds or so. No pellet feed, fan or glow plug activity. Unplugged again and restarted again. This time it got going as expected, but hit 290 and never got hotter. Shut down, let it cool, inspected, unplugged and restarted yet again. Seemed to be OK, but I didn't let it run too long before shutting down. Diffuser and flavorizer bars had not been back in up to this point. So I reinstalled them and fired the grill up. Got to 350 in less than 10 minutes. I let it run for about 5 minutes, and bumped it to 400. Let it run there for about 10 minutes and bumped it to 450 where it's been holding steady for about half an hour. I'm thinking we're good now, but that hiccup with the power has me a tad concerned. Not going to do any overnight cooks anytime soon.
 
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Glad you’ve gotten that sorted out Jim. That’s a problem I don’t expect to have, I’m not getting any more grilling equipment!
Grilling area has reached maximum density!🤣
 
JimK said:
Well, the sun is finally out and I got the new auger installed this morning. A few hiccups after I fired it up. The first time, it started right up, pellets were feeding and the glow plug was glowing. I set the temp for 350 and 5-7 minutes later the temp was reading 71 and not climbing (air temp was about 62 at the time). It looked like the glow plug had gone out. I shut it down, but never got a notification that the shut down was complete. I went out to inspect and the grill was off and the fire pot was full of pellets. I unplugged, cleaned out the pot and started again with a 350 temp. This time, the controller kept restarting every 5 seconds or so. No pellet feed, fan or glow plug activity. Unplugged again and restarted again. This time it got going as expected, but hit 290 and never got hotter. Shut down, let it cool, inspected, unplugged and restarted yet again. Seemed to be OK, but I didn't let it run too long before shutting down. Diffuser and flavorizer bars had not been back in up to this point. So I reinstalled them and fired the grill up. Got to 350 in less than 10 minutes. I let it run for about 5 minutes, and bumped it to 400. Let it run there for about 10 minutes and bumped it to 450 where it's been holding steady for about half an hour. I'm thinking we're good now, but that hiccup with the power has me a tad concerned. Not going to do any overnight cooks anytime soon.
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Sf was mad at you for waiting to install that auger. Lol

Glad to hear things worked out. Sounds like it had to do a couple of reboots to get it's act together.
 
JimK said:
Well, the sun is finally out and I got the new auger installed this morning. A few hiccups after I fired it up. The first time, it started right up, pellets were feeding and the glow plug was glowing. I set the temp for 350 and 5-7 minutes later the temp was reading 71 and not climbing (air temp was about 62 at the time). It looked like the glow plug had gone out. I shut it down, but never got a notification that the shut down was complete. I went out to inspect and the grill was off and the fire pot was full of pellets. I unplugged, cleaned out the pot and started again with a 350 temp. This time, the controller kept restarting every 5 seconds or so. No pellet feed, fan or glow plug activity. Unplugged again and restarted again. This time it got going as expected, but hit 290 and never got hotter. Shut down, let it cool, inspected, unplugged and restarted yet again. Seemed to be OK, but I didn't let it run too long before shutting down. Diffuser and flavorizer bars had not been back in up to this point. So I reinstalled them and fired the grill up. Got to 350 in less than 10 minutes. I let it run for about 5 minutes, and bumped it to 400. Let it run there for about 10 minutes and bumped it to 450 where it's been holding steady for about half an hour. I'm thinking we're good now, but that hiccup with the power has me a tad concerned. Not going to do any overnight cooks anytime soon.
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Glad you got it installed! I had a similar issue after I installed the new auger. After a few restarts it kept filling up with pellets and just wouldn't stay lit. I tried about 6 times and gave up and contacted Weber. Hopefully yours will work out better than mine.
 
Derrick H said:
Glad you got it installed! I had a similar issue after I installed the new auger. After a few restarts it kept filling up with pellets and just wouldn't stay lit. I tried about 6 times and gave up and contacted Weber. Hopefully yours will work out better than mine.
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It's been a little touch and go thus far, but I was able to get two small (~4.25lb) birds done tonight. Not trusting it yet, but certainly not ready to throw it off the deck either. :)


IMG_2120.jpeg
 
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