Idler wheel stops spinning

I have a FFCP, had it about 2 weeks.
have about 20 or so hours on it.
I opened one of the spools that came with it the other day, (grey ABS)
and as i loaded the filament i noticed something odd. after a few seconds i would stop extruding.
after taking things apart and cleaning them, putting it back together and getting the same results, i ended up taking off the heat sink and watched as it extruded.
what i found was the idler wheel on the right (see attached pic)
will stop spinning. the stepper gear to the left it will keep spinning and subsequently chew up the filament.
I took things apart again, took the idler wheel out, put a dab of oil in it and put it back in.
same result.
i tried to tighten all the screws, loosen.. etc. same result.
I pushed up on the thump lever, there for putting more pressure on the wheel, and this made it extrude.

What i don't get is it was working fine, the spring still has plenty of spring.

I tried putting in black PLA and this did work okay, but as i watched it, i could see that wheel would occasionally pause, but then move again
i also noticed that whenever that happened the filament would move slightly.
I can freely spin this idler wheel with my finger, so it's not bound up in any way.

I measured the filament and it's 1.75mm

so i'm at a loss as to what is causing this and what i should do to fix it.
anyone have any thoughts?Attachment 6839

Is your nozzle clogged? What temp are you extruding ABS?

Think about it: the idler wheel cannot stop the filament from being fed into the extruder. You either have a blockage in the nozzle (due to incorrect temps or an actual physical blockage) or filament is snagging on something in the filament feeder tube or on the spool.

I'll add one more.

The filament is too small in places, not likely but still something that can happen.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sebastian Finke

Think about it: the idler wheel cannot stop the filament from being fed into the extruder. You either have a blockage in the nozzle (due to incorrect temps or an actual physical blockage) or filament is snagging on something in the filament feeder tube or on the spool.

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I thought that may be the case, so what i did was cut a 3 foot piece of filament off and feed it by hand (no tubes, no spools)
and the same thing happened.
I took it out and ran black PVA through it. that seemed to work okay.
maybe it's the temp? I'm running it through @ 230C
if it was a clog then the black wouldn't work,
since i'm new forgive the n00b-ness.
is it possible to get "bad" filament?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ffvader

is it possible to get "bad" filament?

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Oh yes, it sure is.