Problem: A household blender, Braun MX2050, is not able to mix anything.
Symptom: The motor works and the the blades in the jug are rotating when the jug is empty but no thick liquid or any solid substances are possible to mix.
The cause: I can tell you already at this stage that the cause is most likely the hex nut rotating inside the black plastic engine clutch wheel visible on top of the blender.
The good part: The clutch wheel is cheap and very easy to replace.
The bad part: It is not a simple task to remove the old clutch wheel from the axis, unless you are really lucky.
The engine clutch is mounted directly onto the axis going into the motor. The top part of the axis is threaded and the engine clutch is simply a hex nut cast into a plastic wheel. If the force is too strong, the nut will start to rotate inside the plastic. In my case this happened when my wife made a smoothie putting too many frozen strawberries into the blender. This resulted in too much stress and suddenly the knives in the blender jar were not rotating any more (the hex nut, however, rotates inside the plastic).
1. You will most likely need to open the blender but before that you can try to give the engine clutch a punch in the right; yes, the word “right” is right, the axis is right threaded; direction, e.g. with a small hammer and a screw driver. In my case nothing happened when I attempted this. The only remaining possibility is then to find a way to keep the axis in a firm grip while removing the nut.
2. The blender must now be opened. To do this, you need to remove the remaining large plastic part of the engine clutch. This can be done in several ways. One way could be to carefully use a Dremel to cut away all plastic. You could also try to use soldering equipment and simply cut by melting. Or, you can choose to be less careful and use brute force and simply bend the plastic away. I chose to be less careful. Below is what I used.
Either way, the result will be the same, i.e. the plastic is removed.
3. Now it is time to really open the blender. There are three screws buried quite deep into the three holes underneath the blender.
After having looked carefully down one hole using a flashlight, it is concluded that the screws are tamper-resistant torx. The screws are also located quite deep. However, I came up with the following “weapon”.
This is what the screws, tamper-resistant T15, look like.
There are also four locking tabs on the bottom part that engage a corresponding locking notch on the upper part. They are identified below (only three are visible in my picture, sorry) and they can they can be released by carefully bending the chassis with a small screwdriver.
4. You will see a number of large parts. Remember, or even better, take a picture or make a note of how they are mounted.
Above all, you will now see something similar to below, i.e. the annoying nut that has to come off.
You will also see the fan wheel at the bottom of the blender.
Note: Do not attempt to hold the fan wheel while with one hand while trying to remove the nut with your other hand. The fan wheel is very weak and WILL start rotating on the axis, i.e. you will NOT be able to remove the nut and the fan wheel might become loose and therefore unusable.
5. Instead, remove the fan wheel. Use a large screw driver and carefully bend it off the axis.
6. Mount the end where the fan wheel was mounted in a vice. Tight quite firmly!
7. Now, use a 10 mm spanner to remove the irritating nut. Nice feeling!
You should now have a little pile of unwanted scarp pieces. Something like this:
Victory is near!
8. Order a replacement part (or two). I ordered two pieces from a company called Reservex here. Their handling was perhaps a bit slow but I got the parts and the shipping cost was quite low (no tracking though) so I am pleased and I can recommend them.
You can clearly see what the clutch wheel is supposed to look like and from the picture above we know what it looks like inside.
9. Put everything back together. It is best to put all pieces in place from the bottom and up. Start with mounting the fan wheel and then put the motor back into it’s place. Make sure to put the cables back correctly. They were originally mounted in a way so that they do not come close to any moving parts. Make sure to put them back in the same way. Next, put the top part of the blender back on. Flip the whole blender and then put back the three screws. Finally, put the new clutch wheel into place. You will probably not be able to tighten the clutch wheel all the way since the motor will spin easily.
Note: Do not try to stick a screw driver from underneath and block the fan wheel or anything similar!
Instead, simply tighten the clutch wheel as much as you can and then use the blender jug half filled with water. Since the clutch will probably be to high up on the axis the jug will probably wiggle a bit. Just keep it as straight as you can with one and and briefly turn on the mixer. This operation will tighten the clutch wheel all the way down and the jug will fall into it’s usual position in the blender.
Congratulations! You have saved your blender, saved some money and saved the environment a little bit!
