- Official Post
I purchased my DB second hand more than two years ago. Ever since then it has made a slight grinding noise (every now and then), which I promptly ignored as it worked perfectly. A few weeks ago I was unable to start it as it wasn't feeding pellets, but after a few startup attempts it got going and worked perfectly for a few weeks.... weird right?
Then last night it would not feed pellets no matter what I did. So I pulled it apart and could see the motor fan spinning, the shaft of the motor spinning, but the auger not spinning.
This morning I rang Hark. Nick helped me to figure out that there was a split pin missing... in fact it wasn't missing, but had somehow been chewed up and squished between the motor shaft and the auger.
I know why it happened, but would rather not say as it may or may not involve the previous owner.
This is what the chewed pin looked like (supposed to be in the hole where the motor shaft meets the auger):
Following Nick's advice I used a punch to remove what remained of it:
Then replaced it with a screw/bolt I had lying around:
It worked a treat, but when I put the whole thing back together and tested it, I noticed some temp fluctuations. They didn't concern me, so I emailed Nick the good news. He promptly phoned me advising me to reset and update the firmware and sure enough that fixed it so it is now 100% again. Holding temp perfectly and spinning without making any grinding noise.
Hats off to Hark for the service, even if I'd had to use replacement parts they were offered to me at what I think is an excellent price. Even better, Nick was patient and willing to spend some time with me on the phone and help to troubleshoot and rectify. Couldn't ask for better service!
Also hats off to the DB motor, which managed to chew and spit out a metal split pin, managed to make the DB work for over 2 years despite grinding metal, and continues to work perfectly.
I love my GMG!