John.H
Member
Hello!
I'm writing to the community tonight to ask help in diagnosing a problem with the auger in my Pitboss Titan, actually it's a bit more than that, it's both my auger Motor and my hopper release handle. Let me explain. Hopefully someone out there has experience with a similar problem or similar issue and might have some solid information on what the fault could be.
First off, the fault I believe is entirely mine - the Titan was running fine, but like a ding dong I realise I am had cleaned the ash pot after a big cook and wanted to shut it off before things got hot, so I unplugged it about minute or two after starting.
Once I did, I heard a loud clunk-like sound but I didn't really think about it because I was focused on cleaning the ash pot and restarting.
When I restarted it, I noticed almost right away that I didn't hear any of the "pellets dropping into the pot" sounds. I ran the diagnostic that the Titan has on its control screen for the auger, heat rod and fan, and they all indicated normal.
I thought about it and realised the only thing really moving at start-up is the
auger motor, which made me realise the clunk was something breaking when I killed the power by unplugging it. I'm guessing/ thinking that I may have snapped some sort of auger coupling between the motor driveshaft and the auger itself, but I don't have it apart yet. (The diagnostics indicating that the auger motor is running okay on scree makes me think it's snapped and just freeze spinning, so to speak.)
Additionally, just to add a little icing to my cake, when I went to empty the hopper so I could look down and actually see the auger drive gear, the lever to empty the hopper, which pulls out directly to the left from the body of the hopper, was now frozen hard and would not move worth a damn. So I now have a hopper, (a 40 pound hopper!) that cannot be emptied and the screen or grid that they have buried about 6 inches down from the top prevents me from reaching in and cleaning the pellets out from the rest of the hopper below it. Sure as hell I wish I'd taken it out when I first assembled it! LOL
I am thinking, given the location of the drive motor and the hopper dump handle being so close that one is probably related to the other. It just doesn't seem like a coincidence.
So, does anyone out there have experience with auger failures or auger breakage on startup? I'd love to get input from anyone because in my mind the auger drive for all of the PB's is basically the same, the Titan's just has the auger screw angling up at a 45 degree angle, but the coupling is most likely still the same.
I'll take pictures of the repair actions and post them once I'm done. It'll also be an opportunity to post some pictures of the Titan specifically. If anyone has any Titan specific knowledge I'd love to hear that too!!
OK thank you ahead of time!!
John H
I'm writing to the community tonight to ask help in diagnosing a problem with the auger in my Pitboss Titan, actually it's a bit more than that, it's both my auger Motor and my hopper release handle. Let me explain. Hopefully someone out there has experience with a similar problem or similar issue and might have some solid information on what the fault could be.
First off, the fault I believe is entirely mine - the Titan was running fine, but like a ding dong I realise I am had cleaned the ash pot after a big cook and wanted to shut it off before things got hot, so I unplugged it about minute or two after starting.
Once I did, I heard a loud clunk-like sound but I didn't really think about it because I was focused on cleaning the ash pot and restarting.
When I restarted it, I noticed almost right away that I didn't hear any of the "pellets dropping into the pot" sounds. I ran the diagnostic that the Titan has on its control screen for the auger, heat rod and fan, and they all indicated normal.
I thought about it and realised the only thing really moving at start-up is the
auger motor, which made me realise the clunk was something breaking when I killed the power by unplugging it. I'm guessing/ thinking that I may have snapped some sort of auger coupling between the motor driveshaft and the auger itself, but I don't have it apart yet. (The diagnostics indicating that the auger motor is running okay on scree makes me think it's snapped and just freeze spinning, so to speak.)
Additionally, just to add a little icing to my cake, when I went to empty the hopper so I could look down and actually see the auger drive gear, the lever to empty the hopper, which pulls out directly to the left from the body of the hopper, was now frozen hard and would not move worth a damn. So I now have a hopper, (a 40 pound hopper!) that cannot be emptied and the screen or grid that they have buried about 6 inches down from the top prevents me from reaching in and cleaning the pellets out from the rest of the hopper below it. Sure as hell I wish I'd taken it out when I first assembled it! LOL
I am thinking, given the location of the drive motor and the hopper dump handle being so close that one is probably related to the other. It just doesn't seem like a coincidence.
So, does anyone out there have experience with auger failures or auger breakage on startup? I'd love to get input from anyone because in my mind the auger drive for all of the PB's is basically the same, the Titan's just has the auger screw angling up at a 45 degree angle, but the coupling is most likely still the same.
I'll take pictures of the repair actions and post them once I'm done. It'll also be an opportunity to post some pictures of the Titan specifically. If anyone has any Titan specific knowledge I'd love to hear that too!!
OK thank you ahead of time!!
John H
