Repairing my bread machine

I wanted to blog about repairing my bread machine, but kept putting it off because it was not very interesting to write about. But I really need to keep the information here so that I can find it again in future. I have repaired my bread machine twice, and the second time, I had forgotten some of the tips and tricks from the first time…

After the difficulty (and minor mistakes) when opening the bread machine this time round, I decided to take some photos for future reference, when reassembling the bread machine. Mine is a MOX/SKG 3920.

First there are a few plastic catches to snap open. A flat-head screwdriver can do this. 

This plastic cover has three triangle-head screws keeping it in place (see the three empty holes in the photo below). But since I don't have a triangle-head screwdriver, after the first time repairing it (when I borrowed a screwdriver set from a friend), I didn't put back the screws so that it would be easier to take off the next time.

For the metal cover, there are six small screws to take off (circled in purple below). 

After taking off those six screws, we can take off the metal cover. Take note of the alignment slots (circled below); they will help in the reassembly.

After taking this off, we see the bread pan compartment (the heating compartment?) with the motors on the side (motors are in the area below the plastic cover, which you might have figured out by yourself).

There are three longer screws (circled in the photo above) holding this metal base to the plastic casing. There are more of these screws around the heating compartment, but again, after the first repair I didn't put them back, because the space between the plastic casing the the metal sides of the heating compartment is very narrow; it was very difficult to work there. I figured that these three screws were enough.

Note: There are more screws locking the heating compartment to the metal base. I initially tried to unscrew those as well, but found out that they did not need to be removed (in both my repairs). And since those screws are blocked by the heating element (which itself has more screws holding it to the heating compartment, but those screws are so tight I can't move them), they are very troublesome to remove, and I think I didn't even manage all of them. So luckily their removal was not really necessary.

After unlocking the metal base from the plastic casing, we can pull it up...but the wire is also locked to the plastic casing, so we have to unlock that before we can pull the external wire into the plastic compartment, therefore giving more "rope" to take the metal part fully out of the plastic casing.

the screws come from where the wire exits the plastic casing

Note: The bread machine is supposed to be still pristinely white after usage. Mine got black because when the bearing got loose and the shaft started moving around, the friction scraped off the metal parts and it came off in a black powder... So if your bread machine starts dropping black powder, it might be due to a broken bearing! (more on that later)

And then we can see the bottom of the machinery.

It is quite simple to take of the wheel and other parts with a spanner. There are a lot of loose parts, so make sure you remember what goes where.

This video helped me a lot during the first repair, which was to replace the broken belt. (It seems that the belt will definitely wear out after a few years of use.)

As for the second repair, the stirrer shaft was wobbly (the one that connects with the wheel). I couldn’t figure out the problem, but after I sent a video to the contact that I found on Facebook, she told me that the bearing needed to be changed. She also sold me the bearing for RM60 (including shipping), which is more expensive than we can find on Shopee/Lazada, but since it includes service (diagnosis and instructions on how to replace it), it is not unreasonable.

To change the bearing, we first have to remove the stirrer shaft by taking off this black clip.

That was probably the most difficult part for me...there are two "holes" that allow us to snap out the clip using a screwdriver, but that "hole" was difficult to find. In the photo below, you can see the black clip after it was taken out:

See how much of the original bearing has been scraped off?

After removing the shaft, we can easily unscrew the bearing from the inside of the bread pan. (The screws were previously blocked by the stirrer.)

Here are the new and old bearing side by side. You can see how the rubber has worn off the old one too.

Now my bread machine is up and running again, and there is just one other problem: The bread pan no longer come out as easily as before. It has been like that for a while...even before I changed the bearing. I am not sure whether it was initially caused by the broken bearing. Anyway, I am still trying to figure that out...