<p>Plug the extruder cable into one of the other motors and send a filament feed signal.
If the problem manifests the same, then you can probably rule out the motor as the culprit. You could have a bad cable or a bad controller board. To rule out a bad cable you'd just swap out the cable from the board to the extruder.
However, if the problem doesn't recur, then the motor might be bad. It might also be mounted poorly. You may be able to remove it from it's mounting and test if the problem persists.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-13T22:37:38.177Z
It ended up being a bad cable
Liam Clink
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-13T13:53:44.910Z
2023-06-13T13:53:44.910Z
Damian Poirier
<p>I recently got a used Creator Pro printer, and I just did a few prints amounting to about 10 hours of total print time, with no issue. But suddenly, the extruder started jerking filament back and forth, not feeding. If I force the filament with my hand, it goes through the hot extruder easily, and when I do filament loading, this still happens. I disassembled the extruder to make sure the motor isn't stuck on anything, and even with nothing touching the shaft, it does this wiggling when I tell the printer to load the filament. I doubt the sequencing for the motor spontaneously changed after hours of printing. I pulled the cable and plugged it back in, same thing. The firmware is Sailfish if that matters. I'm beginning to suspect the stepper motor is toast, but I wanted to ask here first if anyone thinks it could be something else.</p>

<extruder><stepper>
Extruder motor jerking back and forth
Liam Clink
# Extruder motor jerking back and forth

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-05-29)

I recently got a used Creator Pro printer, and I just did a few prints amounting to about 10 hours of total print time, with no issue. But suddenly, the extruder started jerking filament back and forth, not feeding. If I force the filament with my hand, it goes through the hot extruder easily, and when I do filament loading, this still happens. I disassembled the extruder to make sure the motor isn't stuck on anything, and even with nothing touching the shaft, it does this wiggling when I tell the printer to load the filament. I doubt the sequencing for the motor spontaneously changed after hours of printing. I pulled the cable and plugged it back in, same thing. The firmware is Sailfish if that matters. I'm beginning to suspect the stepper motor is toast, but I wanted to ask here first if anyone thinks it could be something else.

**Tags:** extruder, stepper

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2023-06-13. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

Plug the extruder cable into one of the other motors and send a filament feed signal.
If the problem manifests the same, then you can probably rule out the motor as the culprit. You could have a bad cable or a bad controller board. To rule out a bad cable you'd just swap out the cable from the board to the extruder.
However, if the problem doesn't recur, then the motor might be bad. It might also be mounted poorly. You may be able to remove it from it's mounting and test if the problem persists.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: It ended up being a bad cable  

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