Idler wheel stops spinning

[ffvader]

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?extruder.jpg

[joop1987]

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

[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.

[Mjolinor]

I'll add one more.

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

[ffvader]

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 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?

[Mjolinor]

is it possible to get "bad" filament?

Oh yes, it sure is.