Grease is coming out of the unit that holds the beaters when it turns. How do you open this part of the mixer and is it fairly easy to fix. My guess is that a seal is either worn out or dis-lodged. Its only about 2-3 years old and looks like new, but can't use because grease gets into the food when mixing? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Dennis, December 2005

Thank you, tr! I rotated the brush on the control side as you suggested, and the motor works! Ain't life grand.......

Chip, January 2006

For chip... If you were as careful as you state, your only problem would likely be that one (or both)of the motor brushes need to rotated 180 degrees as there appears to be some sort of failsafe design that requires the more narrow side to be up on (I believe the NON control side) and the narrow brush side down on the other side. It should run if it ran before and is not physically damaged

tr, January 2006

Dennis, I have the same model mixer as yours, and I recently discovered such a leak on mine. According to other threads I've read, Kitchenaid says these units will leak grease if not run often enough. Unfortunately, I was under the impression that there was: 1. a separately enclosed gearbox inside the motorhead, and 2. that it was filled with oil, not grease. Neither of these are the case. Because of this lack of knowledge, and because I thought that it had leaked TOO much "oil" to run without damaging anything, I disassembled the motorhead, only to find out otherwise. Additionally, I removed the two big plastic plugs on either side of the motorhead which hold the spring-loaded commutator brushes in place. DOEST NOT DOETH ANY DISASSEMBLY of the motorhead if you don't have to.
Although I was extremely careful not to damage the electronic speed control components at the back of the motorhead, and also carefully re-installed the carbon brush assemblies EXACTLY as I removed them, the gosh-darned motor will not run now. So, clean up the leaked grease and let the motor run for about 5 minutes as a FIRST resort before you do as I did.
ANOTHER FINE MESS I'VE GOTTEN MYSELF INTO! Hindsight is always keener than foresight. Any helpful hints for me, anyone?

Chip, January 2006