Pit Boss 820 Auger Not Spinning

ajl8807 · Jul 20, 2021

Hi, I have an issue where my auger is not spinning at startup. This first happened a few weeks ago and it seemed jammed pretty good. I disassembled, cleared everything out (I noticed a good amount of pellet dust and partially burned pellets in there, not sure how normal that is), put it back together and it worked fine for 2-3 weeks (used multiple times per week). Eventually the issue returned. This time I did the same thing, but I also scrubbed the auger clean. I took a thin layer of dark soot-like stuff off of it. This didn't seem to be causing much resistance, but it looked nice and clean again. Once again after putting back together it started up again and was moving pellets, and then I clumsily adjusted the control board while it was powered and shorted out some component and the control board was fried. So, I decided to order both a replacement controller and auger motor and replaced both. I installed yesterday, all went well and it started up again just fine, auger dispensed pellets as expected. Cooled down like normal. Today I went to use it again and I'm back to the original problem with the grill powered up, fan is blowing, but no auger motion (new motor this time).

Other misc details - this is about a 4 year old grill, never had previous issues. It stays outdoors but I always keep covered when not in use. I have noticed more blowback smoke coming out of my hopper pretty much all this summer on shutdown/cooldown (cleaning issue?). I chose to go with 'upgrades' 2rpm auger motor and smoke daddy PID controller when I replaced parts recently. From what I can tell these are both working as expected.

Any advice on what to try next? Thanks in advance!

Andy

MikeInFla · Jul 22, 2021

Could be the motor. Either it is not running like it should or the sheer pin fell off causing it not to rotate the auger. I had this same issue a year or two ago and they said I had a jammed auger and I needed to take it out. So I did and it was not jammed. I had no idea what was wrong until I discovered the pin that holds the motor to the auger broke and fell out. Here is a video I made about it.

Take a look and see, it could be your problem.

No idea what it says video unvailable, just copy and paste this link
www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_zsRg31v0Q and see if it works,

ajl8807 · Jul 24, 2021

Thanks for the suggestion! The pin was in every time. A couple days back I cleaned it out real well, trying to remove any burnback I was getting in case that was somehow contributing. I also found my chimney stack was pretty gunked up and I'd never cleared that. Auger again started up after reconnection. I've run it hot-mid-cool-shutdown about 5 times on different days since then, it's still running and now I'm not getting as much smoke coming out of the hopper. Fingers crossed this holds!

The only other thing I've noticed is the hole in my auger shaft for the shear pin looks like it's a bit oblong from when it got jammed a few months back. I guess I could see the pin not sitting right in this non-circular hole now and adding some stress on the motor. If I see any more issues I'll likely try replacing the auger itself for that reason.

MikeInFla · Jul 30, 2021

Yes, when mine was "jammed" they sent me a new auger. It was the next day before I discovered it was not the auger but the pin that connects the motor to the auger. They will send you a new one for free. They even sent me a new motor along with the auger and I did not ask for it. Since my motor is fine I just kept it in the box as a back up.

Cowboy1955 · Jul 30, 2021

ajl8807 said:
Thanks for the suggestion! The pin was in every time. A couple days back I cleaned it out real well, trying to remove any burnback I was getting in case that was somehow contributing. I also found my chimney stack was pretty gunked up and I'd never cleared that. Auger again started up after reconnection. I've run it hot-mid-cool-shutdown about 5 times on different days since then, it's still running and now I'm not getting as much smoke coming out of the hopper. Fingers crossed this holds!

The only other thing I've noticed is the hole in my auger shaft for the shear pin looks like it's a bit oblong from when it got jammed a few months back. I guess I could see the pin not sitting right in this non-circular hole now and adding some stress on the motor. If I see any more issues I'll likely try replacing the auger itself for that reason.

Reading through your comments, if it were me I’d change out the auger anyway. I know in Texas you have to keep an eye on your pellets to keep them from getting soft and jamming the auger. Hope this helps.

ajl8807 · Aug 3, 2021

Thanks everyone. Good news is I have been running well for a couple weeks now, but I am also going to get a replacement auger to keep on hand (either free from calling, but it looked like they are not too expensive). Appreciate the help!