I attached a pasta attachment and the mixer made agrinding sound and stopped. I checked the grease and looked inside but couldn't find the problem

Sometimes the square shaft of the attachment does not quite line up with the square hole in in the drive of the mixer. Take a look in the mixer's attachment port and turn the attachment's shaft so that the two line up.

Sounds like a problem with the bushing around the accessory drive. If still under guarantee take it back and get it sorted. If out of guarantee take it to an authorised service centre.

There is a pin on the tapered spindle that fits into a grove in the mixer. If the attachment is not pushed far enough into the mixer housing and screw is not locked down the attachment will spin. It is possable that ihe pin on the attachmen t is sheared off.

I am assuming that the whole attachment is spinning. To forestall this, make sure that the attachment is fully inserted in the attachment hub and that the small protrusion is seated in the notch just in front of the attachment knob and tighten the knob.

Yes it will turn, just remove the beater. It is a solid drive and cannot disengage from the motor unless you overload it and wreck the fuse gear.

It sounds like it could be a possible stripped gear. You could have a bad attachment drive gear or bevel pinon gear.
Best thing to do would be to take the mixer apart, and inspect those gears. Here is a link to the service manual which will aid you in taking apart your 4.5 quart mixer: http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/mendingshed/kitchenaidservicemanual.pdf
Here is a link to the attachment drive gear: http://www.mendingshed.com/attachmentgear.html
Here is a link to the bevel pinion center gear: http://www.mendingshed.com/pinionwormgear.html
Let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you,
Colleen
Customer Service
MendingShed.com
800-339-9297

Hello Darlenescott,

About the machine rocks, the whole machine rocks or just the Head? If it is just the Head you may want to check to see if the set screw that holds the lock in place is still there or lose. The scress is located on the right side of the machine if you are looking straight at it in use. It is at the bottom of the head close to where the head attaches to the pedistool. If it is missing post back to this discussion and I will find the part # and place that you can purchase the part.

The second issue, the pasta attachment is not locking in properly. There is no way to ajust how the pasta attachment fits. I would try and return the attachment and exchange it for another as they are mass produced and may not have got the shaft down to the proper tolerances to fit.

I hope this helped and please post any other questions you have to this thread.

Thank you for choosinf FIxYa for your solution.

It sounds like one of the gears inside the head has failed. You will need to remove the head and take it apart to work out which one. It should be relatively easy to get hold of the part you need once you have identified it. Please post your model number for us to point you to the right parts list.

Its a 325 watt mixer. If you grind or mix dough often you may consider getting something stronger or turn it off every ten minutes or so and let it cool down. We burned a 325 and got the 575 watt "600" series and no problems ever since. I know these things are expensive. The 325 is more mixer than grinder. The attachements fit ANY size mixer but some are not recommended for use in all mixers.
If its quiting see my posts on "doesn't run at sitr" and "Removing the motor cover" To get inside and clean those contacts.