Regreasing and tuning up your KitchenAid tilt head stand mixer (and K5A/K5SS)

[Mosca]

If you clicked to read this, this post will serve one of two purposes. It will either be fun to read (I hope) but you’re never going to do it; or, you’ve thought about it, or didn’t know your mixer needed it, and decide that if Mosca can do it, anyone can. I’d call myself reasonably savvy, and unafraid of machines. If stuff comes apart, then stuff goes back together.

I’ll post the videos I watched in a separate topic. I watched them all twice, then I sat down with the mixer and went step by step, pausing and then resuming the videos as I went along. It seems complicated, but it’s just screws, pins, gears, and grease.

(There were places during the work where I didn’t grab photos, so I’m just going to use photos from the KitchenAid service manual, which is a free download.)

First, take off the back cover and the beauty band.



Remove the drip cup, the drive shaft pin, and the planetary gear. Then remove the strain relief. There are SEVERAL types of strain reliefs. Mine was a real pain in the ass, but it came off.



There are 5 screws under the planetary, and 4 body mount screws. They’re different, the body mount screws are threaded from end to head, and the rear body screw on the speed selector side has a lock washer.



Remove the worm gear and the center shaft pin. The worm gear is plastic or nylon, depending on the age of your mixer. It is a sacrificial gear; if something breaks, the worm gear destroys itself so nothing else does. They’re cheap, $12. Do not replace it with a metal gear!




Remove the drive pin from the worm gear. This was a pain in the ass. It took a hammer and a 1/8” punch. You don’t have to do it, but you should, to inspect the gear and clean around and behind it.



At this point, your gear train is fully disassembled. IT WILL NOT BE AS CLEAN AS YOU SEE IN THOSE PICTURES. Next post in this thread will be what I found and what I did.

[Mosca]

Okay, let’s see what the inside of a 40 year old mixer looks like! This is actually really nice. I don’t think this mixer was used more than a few dozen times over its life. Throughout my cleanup, I used an old toothbrush head and some isopropyl to get between all the gear teeth. Otherwise, I just wiped the grease out with a paper towel and a screwdriver.


Underneath the mixer head. This is where the planetary attaches. Clean it with a rag, or some paper towels.




Inside the planetary.




The main gear train, with worm gear. Lotsa grease! But look how clean most of it is.




Under the top cover, the main drive shaft and the accessory drive gear. Clean all that stuff out.




What everything looks like all cleaned up:

[dpearce]

Yeah, that's what mom's looked like internally. So much fun scraping that grease out. I think I went through half a roll of paper towels and at least two toothbrushes.

[MBMorgan]

Don't forget that the grease must be food-safe. Here's a link to one option: https://www.amazon.com/kitchenaid-Ma...6920376&sr=8-1

[Mosca]

And now you just put it back together in reverse order. You will need food grade grease, which is cheap and easy to find, and a new body gasket, which costs about $6. Food grade grease is now white. And if you have a newer mixer, that’s what will be inside.

Don’t be shy, don’t try to conserve grease. If you bought a 4oz jar you will have lots left over. There will be enough to do this twice.

What you want to do is just smear that sh— er, stuff on everything. Like you’re icing a cake. Everyone loves icing!





Line up that hole for the pin that holds the planetary in place. You’ll need a hammer or mallet and that 1/8” punch. The hammer worked better than the mallet on all the pins.




Hammer all those pins back in, screw all those screws back in, aaaand, DONE!



Oh. Don’t do what I did. Can you see what I did?

If you’re wondering:



Fortunately it was the one under the planetary!

NOW we are done. On to the tuneup!

[texastweeter]

Been there done that. Also replaced a nylon gear. Messy, but not terribly difficult.

[Mosca]

Yeah, I tried using nitrile gloves but you really need that direct tactile feel, right? Messy, but not hard. It’s gears, screws, pins, and spacers.

[texastweeter]

Grownup legos!

[Spinaker]

This was a great write up! Thanks for posting. Mine is only a few years old at this point, but it is great to see this being done.

"Worm gear" is one of my favorite combos in English. And who doesn't love a planetary gear? They are so cool to look at and tinker with.

[texastweeter]

What about flux capacitor?

[Spinaker]

I mean it is what makes time travel possible….. texastweeter

[Dan Deter]

I was trying t fix something on my wife's old (her grandmother's) kitchenaid a number of years ago. When I got to the part where it needed me to use a hammer and punch, I put it back together and sent it in for them to service it . Its now at the boy's apartment since we got the big 7quart model.

[Oak Smoke]

With those skills and fearless drive I could have you rebuilding a Chevy differential in no time.

[texastweeter]

Basically the same. Teach them how to set las and read a dial gauge and he's there.

[Mosca]

I wouldn’t be afraid of that one at all. The only jobs I don’t like are the “have to remove all these assemblies to reach that assembly” type. That’s how replacing the stripped nylon gear on the garage door opener was; not hard, but really involved. When the nylon gear on the other door stripped out a few years later, I just bought a new opener.

[barelfly]

Thanks for posting these. I have the other style of KA, but will dive in and see if the services are similar/same. I had to take mine into a repair shop years ago, I forgot what I did, but it was something to do with pasta. Broke something in the internals, and I’ve also broke two pasta rollers (another reason for some of the plastic gears in the accessories).

I don’t use my KA like I use to, but could probably use a service.

thanks again!

[Mosca]

A quick search on YT, the same guy has videos on the professional series and bowl lift series as well.

[HawkerXP]

Looks like fun!