New to the boards and I've got a problem, searched the forum and have found similar problems but all solutions people found haven't work for me. I've had the FFCP for a few months now at work, it runs 8+ hours a day 5 days a week. We switch back and forth between left and right extruders to rest the motors and gears. Well we've been trying to use the right, but the feed is no longer consistent. It just stops randomly during printing, no clicking, no anything. It keeps moving along like it's printing but no filament gets extruded. I've switch colors to check if it's the filament being used, it isn't. I've disassembled the extruder in question twice and fully cleaned it. The first time the teeth of the feed gear were pretty filled with filament and had high hopes it was the problem, no dice, the second time it had some filament in it again but not as much. I've switch the left and right extruder cables and have certified the right physical extruder is where the problem is because the issue does NOT persist when the right cable is connected to the left extruder but the issue does persist with the left cable plugged into the right extruder. I'm thinking the motor is failing because while the problem is consistent the frequency of it seems almost random. I've pulled back the guide tubes and run the line by hand to feel the tension, at random intervals the extruder simply stops pulling. At first I thought it could be worn down teeth on the feed gear, but after checking they are in top shape and very clean (now). It seems to me the gear simply stops turning to feed the fliament intermittently. Also, when it stops how long it stops for is seemingly random. When I do "Load Filament" it can stop for a fraction of a second to a few seconds before it typically starts feeding again, however when printing once it stops feeding it never starts again. To clarify I've taken apart the extruder and cleaned the feed gear, also the extruder tip, the inner pipe, everything. Put the tip through a acetone bath and cleared it of debris and then sanded the outside free of build up and such. So I'm virtually positive there is no blockage or such gumming up the mechanism. An interesting note, when the feed does stop and it quits pulling the filament if I push the filament in it immediately will begin feeding again and sometimes I have to push rather hard as though there were a blockage, but as I've said I have continuously taken apart and cleaned this thing. It will continue working after that until it randomly stops again, every time it quit if I push the filament in it will always start right back up. It will just fail randomly again.
All of this together leads me to believe something is physically failing with the extrusion unit, since switching the cables doesn't move or end the problem. So what I'm asking really is from experience or sheer knowledge does anyone have a pretty good idea of which part specifically is failing on me? The gear looks good, so I don't think it's the condition of the gear, if the gear is failing to turn I'm thinking that's the motor failing and not the stepper motor driver or the extruder circuit board. If someone could provide an answer that'd be ideal, otherwise if someone could provide the steps or a link to the steps or video (prefer video) on how to trouble shoot this to determine if it's the board, driver or motor I would be thrilled!