Printer no longer extruding! Something wrong with the extruder gear/motor

[Cyber Akuma]

I am using the external filament port.

So, I was changing filament colors, and I could feel something was wrong. The filament didn't feel like it was "catching" into the extruder port. I finally got it, but it wouldn't extrude right. It was barely extruding at all, and would often just get stuck and slowly extrude a blob rather than a line.

I opened it up, and the extruder gear seemed like it was pushed in a bit, too far in to actually grip the filament. I pressed on it to see if it was loose and it completely went inside, flush flat with the casing around it!

So I tried to pull it back out with tweezers, it seemed to work, it’s fully extended now and actually seemed to lock into some position since it won't push back in... but now it won't extrude at all and the extruder gear isn't spinning.

[Duck]

Common problem. The extruder motor is a press fit (Some are glued) into the cast aluminium housing of the extruder body. What has happened is your motor has slid backward, and that has allowed the gear (which slips over the motor shaft) and bearing to also slide backward.

You'll need to remove the extruder, press it all back together and either glue the motor in place or strap it somehow with a piece of thin wire.

I see someone replied already to your thread though on the M3D forum with the links to the how-to articles.