Shredder suddenly runs only in reverse

Do you hear the motor moving in both directions? I just had the same problem with mine. On mine, you can hear the motor moving in both directions but it would only move the shredder teeth in reverse and the teeth would not move going forward. I took the unit apart and found out that the gear right next to the motor shaft was rounded out in the middle. The solution would be to get a new gear or gears if you can get them. Make sure you inspect all the gears to see if there is a lot of play. You might have to replace more than 1 gear. What I did on mine, was take a brass tubing that was just a little larger than the shaft, drill out the center of the bad gear and press the tubing into the center of the bad gear. This took up the extra play and my Tech Solution TS8000 is working again. Hope this helps. If you have any other questions, feel free to email me at [email protected]

Sounds like the sensor/switch that detects when the basket is full of clippings is stuck in the "full" position. UNPLUG this potential finger-eater and poke around on the underside with a pencil or something.

I have a Fellowes W11C shredder that had the same problem-reverse worked fine, forward would not. I opened it up and found all the pieces seemed to be in the right place...but I also found the little electrical switch that gets triggered when paper is inserted and deduced it might have died (since the motor was obviously working and the unit is 10 years old). I pulled it out and found the tiny model number written on it (VM5 5A 125/250VAC in this case) and ordered one on eBay that looked exactly like it, slotted it in, and voila! There is probably a similar switch (likely a different model) in most shredders, so if your unit refuses to work in forward gear, try to find the switch and order a replacement. No soldering needed in my case; I just had to slide the connectors onto the correct "tongues" on the switch. Also for some reason the new switch sat a bit low so the cam couldn't trigger it, so I cut a piece of hard cardboard and put it underneath the switch to boost it up a bit, and it works fine now.

Thanks. I tried to remove the bottom cover but no success! I removed all the screws, but the could not be removed for accessing the gears and semsor.

I had the same thing happen to me today - I had just shredded a ton of stuff, emptied the bin 4 times - after emptying the bin the last time, all of a sudden it would only go in reverse. I pulled out my instruction manual and it says the motor might overheat and to let it cool down and try again. I let it cool down for about 1 hour, cleaned out the gears and dusted off the sensor and it started working even better than it did before.