Need help for a new special friend

[KyNola]

I know I'm a newbie, don't even have my DBS that I've ordered but tonight I was at a friend's house and was telling him about ordering the DBS.  He said he thought his neighbor had a smoker like I had on order.  We went to see what he had.  Here is where I met a new special friend.  He is in a wheelchair, a former firefighter in my hometown.  He has a 8-9 year old OBS.  He told me it has started to have problems feeding the puck completely on the burn chamber.  I cleaned the surface of the chute into the smoking chamber as well as where the feed tube goes into the pusher.  I don't know if that's all it needed or not.  There was no bulge on the puck burner surface(thanks to you guys that's the first thing I looked for).  Any other suggestions?  This guy put his life on the line for my hometown, making his OBS work correctly is the very least I can do.  He wants to change to a DBS eventually. Thanks for any suggestions.

[Habanero Smoker]

Hi KyNola;

Welcome to the forum.

Is your friend still having the same problem with the generator? Was there any improvement in performance? A better description of the actual problem, would be helpful for members to help you trouble shoot. Does the mechanism advance at all? Does it work properly if you manually advance the pucks? Does it advance part way then something appears to be obstructing movement? Does it seem to run smoothly, but only advances part way; pushing the puck halfway to the burner? Or any other advise you can give us.

The problem could be one or several of the following, dirty track that is blocking the mechanism from fully advancing, stripped gear in the motor, or the motor mechanism may be out of sync. Being that it is 9 years old, the problem could be serious, but hopefully it just needs a good cleaning.

If you feel comfortable it taking things apart. First make sure it is unplugged, remove the feed tube, and take a good look at how the generator is assembled. Pay particular attention how the feed tube slot is put together. You can remove the screws at the bottom of the generator, and carefully open it up. It will open like a clam shell. Note how the wiring is assembled, and detach the wires. Now you can carefully remove the cover, and give the inside of the generator, and track mechanism a good cleaning. If you don't feel comfortable detaching the wires, you can give it a decent cleaning with the cover still attached, but it is tricky. I found that denatured alcohol works best for removing any deposit build up. Reassemble (make sure you do not over tighten the screws), and test to see if the advance mechanism is working any better. While there it would be a good idea if you cleaned his his vent if it hasn't been done in awhile.

Hope this helps; but there are plenty on this forum that will help you trouble shoot.

[KyNola]

Thanks Hab,
I think it just needed a really good cleaning.  It was really dirty.  Have a great and safe 4th!

KyNola

[Bubbapucks]

Hi KyNola;

As Habanero Smoker said, "Welcome to the forum!". Sorry to hear about your friend's dilemma with the "vintage" OBS. As Hab's post demonstrates, you're well on you way to getting the best advice here. I'd just like to add that Bubba Pucks can help a little in residue prevention by pushing the last puck off the burner tray rather than letting it sit there longer than 20 minutes. Please let us know if your buddy has any BPs already.....if not, we'd like to send him a complimentary set, in a small way of saying "Thanks for giving so much to your community".

Just drop me an email at [email protected] and give me the address where they need to go to.

Thank you very much,

[KyNola]

Wow!  How very generous of you.  I'll check with him.  Thank you for your offer.

KyNola