Puck Pusher Petering-Out?

[Fiasco]

I have an original Bradley that's about three years old and has always performed admirably. Last night, however, as I was about to smoke some salmon that I had marinated and dried, I checked the unit beforehand (as I always do) and found that the briquette pusher was not operating. I could hear the motor, but nothing was happening. I did a cleaning with some compressed air and re-did all the plugs and it worked! Well, at least once. Then it stopped. So I took the smoke generator off the smoker and shook out some wood flakes, and realized how much was inside the generator. I opened it up, and sure enough, there was enough wood shavings to make a box of briquettes, so I cleaned all of that out, made sure all the electrical connections were ok, then plugged it in. Nothing. Not even a sound. So I went back in and rechecked the connections, etc., and put the salmon in the fridge as it was now too late to get it down that evening. I kept referring to this forum and mention of the "articulated arm? came up repeatedly, so this morning (with some sunlight) I was able to see the arm and even move it, though it was very stiff--and I was afraid of breaking it (or something). Lastly, I wanted to check the fuse. Unfortunately, the fuse cap would not budge, and the plastic stripped very quickly with a phillips screwdriver. I tried a few remedies, but all I got was a busted fuse cap. I decided to leave well enough alone (the fuse was still in place and lights were coming on, so I figured it was working, and if I took the fuse out, I may not have been able to get the cap to stay on again). Soooooooo.....with the unit open again, I reached beneath the motor and felt the arm while with the other hand I moved the actually slider until I managed to get the two "in sync." Something clicked and the slider/pusher shot back to the full open position. I plugged it in, pressed the button, and the slider moved to close. I was victorious, or so I thought. Shortly after starting the smoking, I noticed that there was no smoke coming out anymore. And I could hear the motor trying to work, but it was obvious the slider/pusher was not going back far enough. I took out most of the pucks and that did the trick--it let a new one drop and pushed it. So I put the pucks back in the funnel and when I checked again, same thing as before: no smoke. Removed pucks, pressed button, and the pusher worked fine. So what I am wondering is what's going on here. I have never had a problem with a full funnel of pucks, but now I am afraid to put in more than three at a time. This smoke generator says MADE IN CHINA, which apparently is an issue when it comes to parts (or so I read in a post). Is my only solution to buy a whole new generator or is there something I can do to "power up" that motor and get it running like it used to, so I can turn my back on a full funnel and not have to worry (which has been one of the MANY blessings of the Bradley). Any opinions, suggestions, comments, etc are welcome. Thanks!

[classicrockgriller]

Both Bradley and YardandPool have Bradley parts.

www.yardandpool.com

If you Call Bradley on Monday, they will help you with finding out the best solution.

[KyNola]

You might want to give this a shot.  Now that you have cleaned out the smoke gen of all the wood crumbs, you might try to spray every place the arm pivots with WD-40 and clean the microswitch with alcohol on a cotton swab.

[Habanero Smoker]

From your description, it sounds like there may be some type of blockage in the tracks that the slider is riding on. Or the track may need to be realigned.

I found that using a "wet" lubricant just attracts sawdust particles. I use a small amount of graphite powder on all moving parts, except the slider.

In the future could you use a few paragraph to break up you statements. My eyes need a little more "white" space.  ;D

[3rensho]

A question of how many pucks could  a puck pusher push if a puck pusher could push pucks? (no I'm not drunk - just struck me)  ;D

[Tenpoint5]

I am with Habs on this one re-read a couple sentences a couple of times.

It does sound like the there may be something wedged in the track or somewhere causing the slider/blade to bind.