Creality Ender 3 & 5 Dual Gear Extruder Upgrade

Step 1.

Pre-heat hot end to required temp to remove filament.

Step 2.

After heating hot end and removing filament, allow hot end to cool. Once hot end has cooled, shut down the printer and unplug from power outlet. Once you’ve unplugged the printer from the power outlet, unplug cable from extruder motor.

Step 3.

Removing the bowden tube. Referring to Step 3 image, push the clip in the direction of the arrow. With the clip pressed in, pull the bowden tube. The bowden tube should release. Depending on the age of your printer, sometimes the Push Tube connector can become quite stubborn and may require some force to remove the tube. If necessary you can choose to cut the bowden tube just before the PTC (push tube connector) as a new one is supplied with the kit.

Step 4.

Remove tensioner arm. Using the Hex Key provided with your printer, remove the bolt with the arrow pointed to it in Step 4 image.

Step 5.

Removing extruder motor. Using a hex key, remove the 3 bolts pointed out above. This will remove the extruder motor from the bracket on your printer.

Step 6.

Remove stepper motor gear. Loosen grub screws pointed out above. Your extruder motor should have a flat cut out on the shaft. Take not, as you will have to install the new gear by lining the grub screw up to tighten onto the flat side of the shaft.

Step 7.

Install new base plate. Install using new bolts supplied in kit. Note that the top right bolt in the image has a counter sunk head. Make sure to install the counter sunk bolt in the correct location or you will not be able to install the extruder arm. Before tightening the bolts, make sure to get all 3 bolts started in the threads, then tighten. This will make aligning the bolts easier.

Step 8.

Install the extruder gear. In this step we will temporarily install the extruder gear. Use a piece of filament to line up the gear with the filament guide hole. Just lightly tighten the grub screw for now as we will be adjusting this later. To make the later step easier, have the grub screw facing out like the image above. Make sure to have grub screw tighten on the flat surface of the shaft like mentioned earlier.

Step 9.

Insert bearings into tensioner gear.

Step 10.

Referring to image, prepare extruder arm for install making sure not to over tighten bolt holding tensioner gear. Too much tension to the gear will result in it not spinning freely. Continue to tight bolt while testing that the gear spins freely.

Step 11.

Install tensioner spring.

Step 12.

Install tensioner arm. You will have to line the gears up while slipping the spring over the exposed bolt on the tensioner arm. Once doing so you may have to apply a little pressure to the spring to get the bolt to align. Make sure the bolt has aligned correctly as you do not wish to cross thread it. Tighten bolt.

Step 13.

Insert a piece of filament into extruder gears. Once the filament is inserted, loosen the grub screw on the gear connected to the extruder motor. With the grub screw slightly loose move the filament a small amount backwards and forwards. What we are trying to do here is make sure the filament is running center of the gears. Once you feel it is all aligned, retighten the grub screw.

Step 14.

Install the PTC and reconnect your bowden tube by simply pushing it into the PTC and you’re ready to go. We do recommend calibrating your e steps after install. Teaching Tech has a excellent guide on how to calibrate your 3D printer here.