Of course my garbage disposal had to break THIS way
 

Mike wrote:
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.

Mike
Hi,
If it is quite old(~10 years) time for a new unit.
I replaced my old ISE unit with new direct replacement
stainless steel model. Did not even take one hour.
Good luck.