Mike wrote in message
...
So I'm cleaning up the kitchen last night after getting the kids to
bed, running some water in the sink as I rinse dishes. The side of
the sink with the disposal starts to fill up a bit, so I do the usual
- click on the disposal to clear the junk out and let the water flow.
Except this time the water didn't begin flowing. I heard the motor
run when I flipped the switch, but nothing happened. I pull out the
rubber piece in the sink, put on a glove and reach in a bit (yes, I
know this is ill-advised). There is, of course, a bunch of food in
there. I take a moment to scoop out as much as I can and then shine a
flashlight into the disposal. I see in there the nut that holds the
flywheel to the spinning bolt, but the nut is not in the middle like
it should be. I fish out the nut and it's got part of the bolt still
in it. In short, the bolt that come up the middle from the motor has
broken and the top portion of the bolt is still in the nut. Good
grief. I set the fly wheel back in the center so that I can see the
top of the bolt, and then turn on the motor briefly. Yep, the bolt
still turns, but without the nut holding the flywheel to the bolt, the
flywheel just sits there. Off to google, search string "garbage
disposal repair". Tons of results for things like unclogging a
disposal, resetting a disposal, but nothing that addresses my
situation.

So what do you think? Is this fixable, or is a replacement disposal
the only viable way to go? If I do end up getting a plan to fix the
unit, it seems like pulling teh disposal from the sink will be the
only way to get down into the guts where the bolt meets the motor.

Thanks for any info/advice.

My initial reaction to whether it's worth fixing or not is your
price-to-pain quotient. You don't mention the size of disposal your using
nor the brand. If all you use it for is simple grinding, then a cheap,
on-sale model du jour would be the easiest, and ultimately cheapest, route
to take.

My BIL, He Who Can Fix Anything Mechanical, would never agree to purchasing
a new one because his hobby is fixing the unfixable. He's willing to search
out parts, tear things down, and rebuild a new machine simply because he
enjoys it. He'll spend a whole weekend rebuilding something without thought
to cost in resources and time because that's his hobby.

For my money, and time, the armature was sheered off which means replacing a
significant piece inside the housing and motor area, which also means
tearing everything apart without breaking it, and THEN putting it back
together after you have all the tiny pieces layed out and organized (or
labeled), with the same precision as the robots that assembled it prior,
properly sealed everything, and hopefully tested it before putting it back
under the sink and running water through it.

The call is ultimately yours.

The Ranger