On Fri 25 Jul 2008 02:38:31p, James Silverton told us...

> Wayne wrote on Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:23:06 GMT:
>
>>> wrote on Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:39:42 GMT:
>>>
>>>> My wife has a Kitchenaid Professional 600 stand mixer that's
>>>> worked great for a few years. She's trying to make pizza
>>>> dough, and all of the sudden the dough hook keeps catching
>>>> on the bottom of the bowl, and then of course the motor makes a
>>>> horrible screeching.
>>>
>>>> Anyone know what could be wrong?
>>>
>>> There is a screw adjustment for mixer height and the locking nut may
>>> have come loose.
>
>> If the motor doesn't screech when there is no dough in the
>> bowl, it's probably not a height adjustment issue. All
>> attachments are designed to clear the bottom of the bowl when
>> the bowl is empty. If there is clearance when the bowl is
>> empty, then it's a motor or gear problem, more likely the
>> latter. If I'm not mistaken, that model was made after the
>> Whirlpool buyout of KitchenAid. There were a lot of gear issues after
>> that for quite a while.
>
>> As an aside regarding attachment contact with the bowl, Julia
>> Child always recommended when beating egg whites with the
>> whisk attachment, that the whisk should not be affixed on the
>> retaining pin on the shaft, but rather to be placed on the
>> shaft and then allowed to drop down to the bottom of the bowl.
>> It doesn't come off, but it does allow the whisk to come in
>> contact with every bit of egg white, especially when beating
>> only 2-3 egg whites. I've been doing that for years with no
>> consequence.
>
> There are other possibilities as you suggest but my ancient Kitchenaid
> has worked well for decades. About 15 years ago it became noisy and on
> checking, I found the gears were rather dry. A fairly liberal
> application of grease fixed the problem.
>

Definitely, with enough age and use, the gears can go dry.

--
Wayne Boatwright
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Friday, 07(VII)/25(XXV)/08(MMVIII)
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'MEOW'... 'WOOF'... It's a two-litter
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