FRONT WHEEL

JUST A GUY · Guest

I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH PET HAIR GETTING STUCK IN THE FRONT WHEEL. IS THERE ANY WAY TO TAKE THE FRONT WHEEL OFF TO CLEAN IT WITHOUT PERFORMING MAJOR SURGERY TO IT?

Gordon · Posted: May 12, 2005, 8:40 am Post subject:

On the pre-Disco models it was easy to press out the axle to free the wheel.
The front wheel on the Discovery models has a new feature (a rotation indicator) which has complicated the design. To press out a Disco's axle, the entire front-wheel assembly must first be removed from the chassis.

JUST A GUY · Guest

IS IT HARD TO DISASSEMBLE THE FRONT WHEEL ASSEMBLY?

Gordon · Posted: May 12, 2005, 7:17 pm Post subject:

Here is an abbreviated procedure. You tell me if it is "major surgery":

The major impediment in this task is freeing the wheel & fork assembly from the chassis. That must be done so the wheel-fork can be bucked while the axle is pressed out of the wheel.

Almost all work must be done from Roomba's topside. To get in there, four screws must be removed from the Inner Bumper (black part) to release the Outer Bumper (gray part); then a sub-miniature, 7-pin connector must be de-mated to free the Outer Bumper.

Locate two twisted pairs coming from the wheel assembly and trace them back to a 4-pin connector at the main PWB. De-mate that connector.

That cable goes to the two mechanical switches in the wheel & fork assembly. You will find it intertwined with other cables heading out to bumper-mounted functions and there will be numerous spot-bonds holding those harnesses to the chassis and bumper parts. Break all necessary spot bonds and free the wheel-cable from the others.

There are four special-headed screws to remove -- they have triangular sockets like those on your battery case. You would be wise to make a triangular wrench -- one that is about three-inches long -- to fit those battery screws; it will make the wheel-work a lot easier.

Remove the four, triangular-socket-head screws and the two blocks they retain.

The wheel-drop sensor switch will have to be dislodged from its mounting.

The wheel-assembly should now be free to slide out of its guide. Remove it.

Once the wheel & fork assembly are free to work on, the fork's
metal-side-cover can be dismounted after removing a single screw.

Pressing out the axle-pin is then straightforward, so long as you support the fork properly and use the correct size drive-pin. Use a bench-press to apply force to the pin-end that is set flush to the eccentic's side-face, to push the pin out the far side. You will see that the pin has a straight-knurl near its mid-section, and that is what grips the wheel. Be sure to notice which way the pin was oriented, it should go back in so the same end of the pin fits into the eccentric.

The wheel is free, and wound on debris at its sides will fall away.

Re-assembly might take twice the time it took to get it apart. Just reverse these steps. If you plan to repeat the cleaning process, use something other than hot-melt glue to tie down the cables.

IMO: All of that work is certainly not for the inexperienced or ill-equipped worker.

Guest · Guest

Gordon wrote: On the pre-Disco models it was easy to press out the axle to free the wheel.
The front wheel on the Discovery models has a new feature (a rotation indicator) which has complicated the design. To press out a Disco's axle, the entire front-wheel assembly must first be removed from the chassis.

Yes, this is exactly one of the reasons why I prefer the Roomba Pro Elite over the Discovery (which I returned).

Guest · Guest

okay, i realize this may not be the best idea, but i have been going into the edges of my front wheel with an exacto knife and cutting out the pet hair. that way i don't risk messing it up by taking it apart (i am not very mechanically inclined...)

Jira · Guest Joined: 17 Jul 2005 Posts: 1

Guest wrote: okay, i realize this may not be the best idea, but i have been going into the edges of my front wheel with an exacto knife and cutting out the pet hair. that way i don't risk messing it up by taking it apart (i am not very mechanically inclined...)

Yes it works. I had front wheel jammed also. It was hard to twist and the spring had not enough strength to push it down from the Roomba SE. Because there was not much dirt visible I started to check discussions how to remove and clean front wheel inside. Then I tried tweezers. You need a bit of strength to reach axle. I removed hairs from axle. There was more dirt than it looked at first sight. Front wheel looks like a new and I had not need to use screwdriver.

alvivasc · Guest Joined: 12 Jan 2006 Posts: 1 Location: Siena, Italy

As all of you I've had the same problem with the front wheel. But have no idea how to find that triangular wrench. Do you know what is the exact name of that and where can i find it? Is it an elctronic or mechanical kind?
Thank you very much in advance for your help.

Just another lazy lover of this wonderful genial machine...

Gordon · Posted: January 12, 2006, 9:46 am Post subject: Re: Front wheel is making me mad

alvivasc wrote: ... Do you know what is the exact name of that and where can i find it?... Try this source (provided by Josephson in roombausers msg#10070) for triangular bits.

BTW: Removing & replacing that wheel is a lot of work, and there is a chance of messing up some wiring in the process. It is perhaps better to develop a cleaning process that avoids the wheel's R&R. Here is a possibility which I tested on a dead Disco that came to me.

I noticed its Front Wheel (FW) was tightly bound with long fibers wound around its axle; and even the up/down action of the FW's fork was impeded (to illustrate the extent of debris load in that area). I thought: Here is a good test-bed for exploring other hair-removal tools, tools that had not been mentioned by owners. It may sound a bit crude / gross, but I chose a 32-teeth / inch hack-saw blade! {Note: Later experimentation showed that coarser teeth, say 18 TPI, do a better job of snagging, then ripping the fibers.} I dulled the blade's tooth-spurs (resulting from "setting" the teeth) that flare out to the sides, since I wanted only to cut straight down to the surface of the axle, and not to mar the Fork's plastic. And, 'cut' I did -- with a light forced sawing action to shred the long fibers into a loosened bundle.

Generally, I had to prevent the wheel, or the hair-disc, from rotating (that's what the opposing blade does for you), but soon the sound of teeth rubbing the axle could be sensed. (Don't be concerned about sawing through the axle! It will be scratched, but the severity of that can be controlled by you). When that metal contact is sensed, it is time to manually rotate the wheel a quarter turn to access un-shredded fibers, so they may be attacked. {inserted}For additional information about this tactic plus some pix, see MY T-REX POST. Naturally, pointed-forceps, with serrated jaws, were used to clear away the short & loose fibers. Within about five minutes the caster-wheel was free spinning.

To R&R the non-swivel caster will take you at least 10X that amount of time.

RoombaRules · Posted: January 15, 2006, 1:49 pm Post subject:

I just want to remind everyone however, that this type of work voids Roomba's warranty!
I've never had any need to remove the front wheel of any of my Roombas...

supertiger · Guest Joined: 10 Aug 2005 Posts: 29 Location: Mississippi

you can get at the hair just by useing needle nose pliers just gently pry the wheel over to one side with the pliers and grip the spindle and you can pull out all the tangled hair then do the same to the other side and when your done recenter the wheel and your finished.

Gordon · Posted: January 15, 2006, 6:24 pm Post subject: Re: use needle nose pliers

supertiger wrote: ...you can get at the hair just by useing needle nose pliers just gently pry the wheel over to one side... I appreciate that you said "gently pry", however, the magnitude of fork-arm displacement needs to be minimized while doing the prying. I would like to caution anyone prying between the wheel-fork and wheel, on the side with the metal-channel strip, that there is a possibility of pushing a plastic-eccentric off the end of the axle.
If the eccentric comes off, the Disco's once-per-turn sensor-pulse is disabled.
You may run this diagnostic procedure to verify the sensor is working.
Should the eccentric come off the shaft, a full disassembly of the front-wheel-assembly is required to get it back on.

tsumuji · Guest Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 8

:twisted: The dog hair in the front wheel problem is the biggest problem of all!
One can vacuum the whole floor manually in the time it takes to clean the hair from the front wheel. In the process the mind wanders...why am I doing this anyway? Perhaps I should just vacuum the floor next time..etc"
Needle nosed pliers, little tweezers...hack saw blades...void warranties...
no real help.

What Roomba needs is to address this problem. Most people buy this product for convenience. It is just not easy to get the roll of hair off the axle of the wheel. Ten,,yes 10 minutes would be a short time every day.
More like 15 or more...times 7...is almost two hours a week!
Boo. This is a design error to be corrected.
What we need is and easy to remover front wheel so that we can take off the hair.
Otherwise I love the machine.
I just wish there were good suggestions on this forum on getting the hair out!

dura321 · Posted: July 23, 2006, 6:04 pm Post subject:

I just spray in a little neet hair remover wait ten minutes and remove all that hair in no time :shock: :shock:

THX-1138 · Posted: July 23, 2006, 6:05 pm Post subject:

A good use of the ol' 'search function' on this forum might have saved you some grief. Check out this suggestion on an effective work around of this specific issue:

HAIR ON FRONT WHEEL ISSUE

Not nice and clean but effective. :wink:

tsumuji · Guest Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 8

[quote="dura321"]I just spray in a little neet hair remover wait ten minutes and remove all that hair in no time :shock: :shock:[/quote]

I will look for this 'neet' remover. The problem is componded by long hairs during heavy shedding. The result is a woven rope of incredible strength which has lots of room to build up because the axle is so deep on the front wheel.
Yesterday we found a specialist long thin needle nose pliers with a large wide handle. This enables more power and reach down into the small slots on the sides of the wheels. Still it is a MAJOR problem and not to be simply pooh poohed as if it were fixed by some search option. The new pliers reduces the time to clean to maybe 5 minutes a day which is much better.
I wonder if neet can make it down to the axle when the amount of hair is large?