How to Troubleshoot & Replace Whirlpool AP6048307 / W11086780 Worm Follower Gear

This time I replaced the front and rear bearings and thrust bearing and all the gears. The hardest part is thoroughly cleaning out all the old grease. After re-greasing and assembly mixer ran like new. I wish a more robust worm gear was available. A snap ring plier is a must for this job. 

Opened up transmission housing and removed all gearing to inspect for worn parts. The Professional 6 is all metal (except for the transmission housing cover) so just a couple of gears looked worn. Planetary needed adjustment, although the gearing was solid. Replaced the transmission housing cover with a new metal version. Cleaned out the old grease (all that grease...) and repacked the gears. Closed it up, ran it for 30 minutes to set in the new grease, and everything sounds smooth and quiet. Two things if you decide to try this very doable rebuild: You will need high-quality snap ring pliers. I fought with that thing for over an hour because my snap ring pliers were substandard. Also, be prepared to deal with grease. Lots and lots of grease. I also give Appliance Parts Pros highly my highest recommendation for quick service and high-quality parts. They were a pleasure, start to finish (especially Tiffany B). 

Upon visually checking the gears, I noticed damage to the worm gear so ordered and installed a new one. Other gears appeared to be OK. The top bearing on the vertical shaft had slipped down--I could not push it into the gear housing. When testing, the gear noise was better but still unsatisfactory, so I then ordered the rest of the gearing under the gear housing as well as a new gear housing. Upon replacing with the new gears and new housing, the mixer runs like new. Wife was again able to make a double batch of whole wheat bread without mixer overheating. With gear costs so reasonable, if there is a next time I'll just order all new gears. 

Replaced gears, removed old grease & added new grease to parts. 

Took unit apart, small snap-ring pliers very useful (get a pair), the expanding type. the rest if obvious. The worm gear was totally chewed up. The spiral gear that meshes with the worm gear showed a little bit of wear also. Removed as much grease as possible (full of gear chips and gear power), installed new worm gear, grease and reassembled. Very easy, anyone with snap ring pliers can do this very easily. 

Looked online for parts and drawings to see how it went together and found appliance parts pro. They had the most complete set of parts in stock of several places I checked. The drawings were great so I could see how it came apart. Went out to the garage with it and took it apart. Checked the drawings and watched the video (video was an older mixer but close enough.) Found a worn worm gear and the mating gear with several missing teeth. Ordered parts with 2 day shipping. Cleaned all the old grease and metal shavings out (that was the most time consuming part of the project), regressed it and put it back together. Really appreciated the drawings because I forgot which end a set of ball bearings went on and the it was easy to tell from the drawings. Back to making bread again. 

This a 475 watt mixer and its gears were stripped. wasn't used that much, have a smaller one that's 30 years old that's stronger. well anyway, took the mixer apart to find the stripped gears, saw a small crack in the trans cap but didn't worry about it. parts came quick and it took longer to get the spring clip off than to do the repair. but after cleaning out all the old grease, I found that the cap was cracked beyond use. lesson learned. clean everything and inspect before ordering. save your self time and shipping. hope to have the cap back and up and running soon. Christmas baking needs to be done. 

Watched some Youtube repairs. My mixer was quite different in the way it opened, and in the gears inside but I had the right idea. I could see the worn gear teeth. I could see that the other gears appeared perfect. I was glad it was a gear on top, easily accessible, and not below where I had thought it would be. I think on my bowl-lift Pro model removing that must be much more difficult. The only difficult move was removing and installing the snap-ring without snap-ring pliers. 90 - 100 degrees of the gear had extremely worn, not broken teeth. So I had greatly abused the mixer with stiff bread dough. Also have the DC motor KitchenAid, their most powerful; but even that will not make the number of loaves of bread advertised (I use 375 gm. flour/loaf). Guess I will have to get a Hobart. The mixer made ugly gear noises for the first 20 minutes though I had smeared the gear with the abundant grease inside. Now it sounds and works as it did when new, thanks to AppliancePartsPros and to the folks who posted web pages. 

Took apart & replaced gear. 

Watched videos available on APP's website, then ordered all necessary parts. Once parts arrived, just followed the videos again, step-by-step, to repair the mixer. I am NOT a "handyman", but with APP as my resource, I did it. Mixer running great now.