Whirlpool WP16897 Stand Mixer Planetary Shaft Bearing OEM Part

Went great parts were perfect staff very helpful FANTASTIC company to deal with

Replaced gears

I replaced both front & rear sleeve bearings along with the shaft bearing to improve stability of rotation of all gears. I also found the vertical shaft bearing had worked itself out of the housing and was sitting on top of the bevel gear rather than pressed into housing. I reinstalled the vertical shaft TOP bearing into the housing and "pressed" it in with a hammer and socket extension. I then cleaned all parts and the housing and installed new grease into the proper places. Upon reassembly, the machine was run at slow speed to ensure all things meshed properly. The machine was then run at top speed for 5 minutes without issue. I would have 'bought" more parts, like vertical shaft and planetary gears BUT the prices are too expensive and a 'refurbished' unit can be purchased from KitchenAid with a warranty for far less than the parts cost! Being a manufacturing engineer, it is sad to see the 'mark-up' on piece parts as it tends to make repair unreasonable and wastes a lot of good material into the landfill! Thanks for working to keep the prices reasonable and hopefully, dropping the price will create MORE repair business rather than throwing away the old to buy new or refurbished systems.

The problem was easy to see visually. I found the manufacturer's part numbers on their (KitchenAid) website. The parts were easy to find on Appliancepartspros.com - and I was able to verify (from the KitchenAid information) that the part numbers were the correct ones for our mixer. It was a great experience. I had the parts in hand 48 hours after placing the order with Appliancepartspros.com. Appliancepartspro is a great resource!

The mixer was making grinding sounds, and the planetary drive would slip. I completely disassembled the gear box, following directions on the AppliancePartsPros.com YouTube videos, as well as the parts descriptions on the website. The worm follower gear had several teeth damaged or missing, and I also discovered that in a previous rebuild 6-8 years before, the repairer (me) had incorrectly placed the thrust bearing on the rear of the helical gear. I went ahead and replaced all of the gears and bearings, except for the ring gear and two accessory bevel gears, which showed no signs of wear. I did pull, clean and replace the ring gear as someone had forgotten to grease it earlier, so it was gunky, but undamaged. There was some confusion about which was the rear or front helical gear bearing, since both have the same number on the parts diagram. Contrary to the YT video, the most difficult bearing to replace was the planetary bearing sleeve--I had to tap it out. The repair was simple, but messy because of all the grease, but way cheaper than buying a modern and more expensive stand mixer of uncertain quality. The mixer is way quieter than it ever was. Now, my wife can go back to baking her State Fair winning bread!