Need some ideas

[mznb1u]

My 10 year old Maytag refrigerator's ice dispenser was acting up so I decided to remove the ice tray to see what the problem was.  Well, it would appear that at some point over the last couple of weeks the power went out and the ice froze up on the auger that pushes the ice to the front of the tray and out the door into your glass.  Then someone in the house, not me, attempted to dispense ice.  The auger was frozen place so the motor torqued and exploded the plastic out of the housing in the back of the ice maker.  I have secured the replacement shelf and housing but am having a difficult time getting the "U" shaped piece of metal that links to the auger off of the motor shaft.  This must be done to thread the motor through the new housing to secure the motor.

Maytag in their brilliance used a smooth round shaft on the motor (couldn't have squared off two sides--that would be too logical) and there is only about 3/8" clearance between the motor and the piece to be removed.  The only thing that I have that can grab onto the shaft of the motor is a pair on needle nosed vice grips and they keep slipping when I attempt to turn the piece off of the shaft.  I figured out that the shaft is reverse threaded so that is not the problem.

I can't use heat and the don't want to ruin the shaft of the motor.  As you can see from the picture, the brass color of the shaft is shining through.  The shaft was completely black before I attempted to remove the part in question.

Any ideas from the collective wisdom of the site?

Thanks!

  Tim

[tkaz]

Tim, maybe you could take a square edged file and make the flat edges that might hold a wrench?  

This looks like the service manual for something close to your model: http://www.applianceblog.com/manuals/16010154.pdf

Look at pages 3-12 and 3-13 for the auger motor

Also, try holding the shaft with the vice grips like you are, then give a quick tap with a hammer, sometimes that works well

[briandr1]

if you had a tool that would grab the yolk that would hook up to an impact wrench, could it possibly have a button lock like on an angle grinder for removing the arbor from the shaft. theese new age engineers design stuff like this so us working guys have to pay for service. good luck with it.

[scalebowler]

Maybe you could clamp the motor in a vise (just to keep it stable) and use something like a screw driver or a piece of metal between the two forks and carefully unscrew it that way?

[mznb1u]

Thanks tkaz!  That manual made it sound like the thing should just come right off without too much effort.  That ticked me off enough to give it a real hard twist and not worry about damaging the motor and what do you know--it came off!  And Brian you are correct.  That thing was definitely designed to frustrate Joe Homeowner enough to pick up the phone and call service.  I think there was a touch of locktite on the threads!

Its bad enough that they charge you $60 for a plastic shelf--they want a service call on top of that!?

We will be dispensing ice tomorrow!

  Tim