The planetary plate fell off. How do I get it back on

Remove back cap, remove white wire and black wire from lower corner of speed control plate, both on same side on adjacent terminals. Remove the gasket thing at the back as well.
Remove chrome drip ring from around planetary, knock pin out of planetary and remove the planetary.
Flip upside down on a towel and remove pedestal by taking out hinge pin (1 locking screw from underneath inside pedestal)
Remove all screws from bottom side of gearcase, 5 around planetaty, 2 in the middle and 2 at the back.
You can now seaparate the gearcases to get to the speed control lever which is held on by 1 screw.

This is a fairly easy fix but you need a new planetary, some new grease a new gasket and about an hour. The planetary for your machine is a recent design, that did not work. the planetary and the shaft has been milled with grooves and they are pressed together at the factory. The tolerance was deemed to be tight enough to keep the shaft and the planetary together during the life of the machine....but sadly this became a common problem. They have since fixed the problem in the new design. They went back to pins and retaining clips from pre 2006. Your fix is inexpensive and ther are several videos on the internet showing you step by step how to do it yourself. Hope this helps.

Edward, it sounds like your planetary is starting to separate.Where the center shaft connects to the planetary commonly separates, the pieces are machine pressed together, and can separate, usually your beater, and planetary plate will just fall off into the mixer, while the center shaft stays up inside the mixer with the gears on it.

What you will need to do is buy a new planetary assembly, you do also have the option to have it pressed back together by a machinist, but it is usually cheaper just to buy a new planetary. According to your model number you have a Onyx Black mixer, here is a link to the replacement planetary on our website: http://www.mendingshed.com/9708176.html

That should solve your problem, also here is a link to the service manual in case you need any help taking the mixer apart: http://ep.yimg.com/ty/cdn/mendingshed/kitchenaid6qtservicemanual.pdf

And of course, if you need any help you can call us and speak with a KitchenAid technician over the phone

Thank you,

Colleen
Customer Service
MendingShed.com

Is the planetary still off before the taper pin is in place?

It's a shot in the dark but if everything lines up, I can think of two possibilities:

1. The taper pin in backwards, and
2. The shaft hole in the planetary is out of round.

The planetary is held in by a push pin. I suspect this is missing. Now the base where the planetary inserts is damaged and allows a wobble. This is very bad since that is molded into the main case of the mixer.

The Planetary plate comes attached to the shaft from the factory. It is not supposed to get
loose and come apart but it often does due to the mixer's vibrations and the user's constant
attaching and removals of the flat beater, wire whip or dough hook onto the beater shaft.
Try to remove the Planetary plate first : Gently rock it from side to side while pulling on it
to separate from the shaft. Notice the groves on both the shaft and inside the planetary
housing. That is how they are attached to one another at the factory (just friction, no screws
or pins). Now for a permanent solution:
Take a trip to Home Depot or Ace hardware and buy the J-B Industro Weld Compound
(Not the 5 minute type). Mix an equal amount from both tubes (Black and Red). Use a Q-Tip
and apply a thin layer of the mixture on both the shaft (grooved section) and inside the
planetary housing. Now re-attach the planetary plate to the shaft. Use a long strip of duct tape
to hold the plate in place (to prevent it from falling back out). Allow the epoxy to dry overnight
or at least for 8 hours.
The Planetary assembly is now permanently attached to the shaft of the mixer.

The Planetary plate comes attached to the shaft from the factory. It is not supposed to get
loose and come apart but it often does due to the mixer's vibrations and the user's constant
attaching and removals of the flat beater, wire whip or dough hook onto the beater shaft.
Try to remove the Planetary plate first : Gently rock it from side to side while pulling on it
to separate from the shaft. Notice the groves on both the shaft and inside the planetary
housing. That is how they are attached to one another at the factory (just friction, no screws
or pins). Now for a permanent solution:
Take a trip to Home Depot or Ace hardware and buy the J-B Industro Weld Compound
(Not the 5 minute type). Mix an equal amount from both tubes (Black and Red). Use a Q-Tip
and apply a thin layer of the mixture on both the shaft (grooved section) and inside the
planetary housing. Now re-attach the planetary plate to the shaft. Use a long strip of duct tape
to hold the plate in place (to prevent it from falling back out). Allow the epoxy to dry overnight
or at least for 8 hours.
The Planetary assembly is now permanently attached to the shaft of the mixer.

My wife has the same model and the planetary unit fell off shortly after we bought it. Since we had moved overseas to a remote pacific island, getting it fixed under warranty was out of the question.

Since the rotary unit is a pressue fit, I pressed it back into place and it worked fine for about 3 months before I had to repeat the process. After that it became a monthly ritual.

I finally decided to fix it for good. What I did was drill a 3/8" hole in the center of the nub in the middle of the inverted rotary cover plate. I then drilled a 5/16" pilot hole in the center of the grooved shaft that the rotary cover plate presses onto. I then tapped that hole with a 18 NC tap. I was careful to tap it just a little shy of the depth of the cap screw that I was going to insert into the threaded hole so that it would jam as I tightened it. I then greased all the gears with a white machine grease and pressed the roary cover plate back onto the shaft. I then put a washer on a 5/16"-18 x 1" socekt head cap screw and clamped the thing together. It hasn't come off in the last 2 years.

While I am moderately skilled in this sort of thing it wasn't a precision operation. Since I was living in a fairly remote location with no shop, I did the entire operation on the kitchen counter using a handheld electric drill. Probably the hardest part was determining how deep to tap the shaft. I did it by trial and error. You can adjust the depth by using a washer or two of varying thicknesses.

I'm really surprised how lame a design using a press fit for this assembly is. They could easily prevent the problem by using my approach or even putting a cotter pin through the shaft and reciever tube in the rotary cover plate (a small hole would be needed in the side of the tube to set the cotter pin).

From what I've seen on the internet while looking for a solution, this is a fairly pervasive problem.

We thought we were buying a high quality machine that we thought would be reliable in our remote situation. Fortuantely, other than the falling rotary cover issue, the machine has worked great.

It appears that retaining ring (7) has snapped. It is the retaining ring which attaches to the drive shaft. Here is the parts diagram:

http://shared.whirlpoolcorp.com/assets/pdfs/literature/Repair%20Part%20List%20-%20W10157992.pdf

From it you can see how to remove the case cover and access the gear train. You may have to replace the shaft if its groove is worn allowing the retaining ring to slip off.

BRUCE, sorry for the initial solution... I had a total brain cramp of what you were describing and after reflecting on your original problem and then seeing your second entry realized what happened. You are absolutely correct that the planetary shaft is press fit onto the planetary housing. For whatever reason, I overlooked that.
I cannot explain why it the housing came of the shaft, but suspect that vibrations during its use caused the fitting to loosen and the planetary housing to fall off.
You have two options. Option #1) Purchase a new planetary assembly that includes the agitator shaft, which will run between $35~$57, plus S&H depending on the vendor or Option #2) try to reattach the planetary housing back onto planetary shaft. (BTW, if you reorder the planetary use the part number from your Parts List manual for your particular color and model, not the 9078036 number you found on the housing)
I suspect the planetary housing’s spline well has already been weakened and there may be micro-cracking which is not clearly evident so the refitting may or may not work. Of course it may be worth trying and fit back together without any problems.
Since it will be difficult to get good mechanical advantage by hitting the planetary housing back onto the planetary shaft while the mixer is upright, you will need to remove the planetary shaft from the transmission housing before you attempt to hammer the shaft back onto the planetary housing.
If you attempt to refit the planetary shaft back to its housing, place the housing on a piece of soft wood to protect the enamel paint before you start to hammer the shaft. Also use a piece of wood on the top of the shaft so you don’t accidentally damage the top of the shaft with your hammer. Good luck. I hope this solution was more helpful than my first one. – hslincoln, Burke, VA -