KitchenAid KS85 Coupling Drive

When I took it to my authorized KitchenAid repair guy he said you need a 7mm wrench and you need to make sure it has a VERY thin depth/girth of the wrench. He actually held his wrench tip to a metal sander and made it thinner on each side without compromising the integrity of the torque of the wrench. This is to make it fit properly under the coupler and around the shaft. Anyway, can rip off the rubber cap of the coupler, hold the metal disc part TIGHT with pliers, and stick the wrench beelow the coupler and above the base body. (The rubber coupler left still on it might make it easy for the pliers to grab, but you rish tearing it and maybe stripping the shaft or your wrench. Make sure the rubber piece is good and strong if you are going to do this.) If you look hard at the rotator shaft sticking up, it is not completely round -- it has two flat sides (for the wrench to brace it). Lastly, to finally loosen the coupler off the shaft, you hold the wrench constant on the shaft and you twist the pliers CLOCKWISE, as though you would be tightening something. Again, LOOSEN=CLOCKWISE. You are not tightening... The coupler thread is opposite the normal threads we are used to. The coupler is lefty-tighty and righty-loosy. The trick, I believe is finding the perfect wrench so that you don't feel like you are stripping the shaft or wrench. Then you get your new coupler and lefty-tighty it on.

Aside: Looking at the coupler, after the rubber is pried off, you can imagine that there is a special tool that fits into the little holes to make the twisting easier. My repair guy thinks this was the original intent, but perhaps the special tools for this repair process are not available since now there is an newer KitchenAid blender out with a different coupler design (and repair process). But this works. I even bought an extra coupler off him to do it myself the next time. The "authorized" dealers are few and far between in my part of the country, my nearest 3 hours away. I couln't even find a closer "unauthorized" person to repair it! I loved this blender enough for the 3 hour trek, though.

Hope this helps!!

We have the same problem. A little searching on the internet turned up this site :

http://store.mendingshed.com/kacoupling.html

They stock the part (if you live in the US), and a super easy way of getting the coupling off. I just followed their instructions and had the coupling off in a few seconds. No three hour drive for me! Their solution consists of placing a screwdriver on the left side of the coupling to remove and hitting the screwdriver with a hammer. A few rapid hits breaks the coupling loose because the motor inertia keeps it from rotating as fast as the coupling. This doesn't put any load on the motor bearings if you do it right. Follow the link if this short description doesn't make sense.

I found several places on e-may that sell replacement couplings for ~$10 including shipping.