Whirlpool W11086780 Worm Follower Gear OEM Part

My KitchenAid Professional Series 6 mixer which is about 20 years old suddenly stopped working. The motor would run but the beater would not complete a full circle without a push from me. I took the gearbox apart to figure out why the beater would not turn and discovered that the worm follower gear had most of the teeth stripped from it. I believe this was caused by a lack of grease. As I removed the gearbox cover, I noticed that most all the grease had been thrown to one side of the gearbox. Very little grease was on the gears themselves. Some research lead me to AppliancePartsPros.com website and the very helpful videos. I ordered the gear and grease, then disassembled and thoroughly cleaned all the parts as instructed in the video. I also found flour and sugar in the On/Off slide control which had not been working smoothly for quite some time and took that apart and cleaned it up also. When the gear and grease arrived, I partially assembled the gearbox without grease and manually tested (no electrical power) to make sure everything worked properly. I disassembled and started again using the grease as instructed in the video. About an hour later,I had everything back together except for the cover. I ran the mixer for about 15 minutes at various speeds, then opened the gearbox to check that all the gears were still covered with grease. They were not. I added more grease, closed the gearbox, and ran the mixer again. I opened the gearbox again the grease covered all the gears. The mixer is now working great. Hopefully, I can get another 20 years out of it. Thank you AppliancePartsPros.com.

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.