Worn out beater gears - Sunbeam 2346 Heritage MixMaster Series Stand Mixer

If it does this while mixing dough, for example, your mixture or portions may be too much for the mixer to handle.

If it does this with no materials in the mixing bowl- then it sounds like one or both beaters may be out of alignment; a damaged or worn center shaft pin; a worn center pinion gear, a damaged or worn worm gear...etc.

wild guess turn beater as you push in to allow the beater to engage the drive, a little like gears meshing. You should be able to feel it lock into the drive.

Sounds like a worm gear problem to me, it's impossible for the motor (armature) to move far enough to not drive the gear. There are driving pins in the system from fuse gear to paddle.
1) in the fuse gear
2) inside gearbox above planetary joining shaft to bevel gear
3) through planetary and shaft

There is also one joining the little gear inside the planetary to the shaft, doubt you'd break that one though.

One of the beaters had jumped a gear. I understand they are nylon gears. My wife's had the same trouble. I unplugged the mixer, removed the bowl and install the beaters if you can to see where they are touching. They were two cogs off. I grapped the left (red) beater firmly and twisted it to the left. It took a couple tries and turning on the motor (with out beaters) to find the spot where they had skipped. In the end the left beater jumped back one then two teeth and now the beaters aline properly.
This will happen again with heavy dough, etc. now that the teeth are worn in that spot. Use a bread machine for the heaver dough. IMHO

We have a Supermix 170 that has worn gears inside the motor unit so you can have the whole thing for spares :)

I was able to take the mixer apart and found the gear that was worn out.

You can remove the handle-back by gently prying the rear clips down and away. But the problem is the power boost button; it has a fork that goes down the left side and snaps over a micro-switch. You need to get that off since there is not room for all 3 buttons (eject, variable speed, and boost) to slide through the handle. A small probe inserted from the top and pushing on the left side to the rear might do it. Or just pry the boost switch upwards; that's how I got mine apart. My problem was the boost microswitch was bad and provided a poor connection. As a result, the beater only ran intermittently on regular switch positions. I solved it by bypassing the boost micro switch. The beater now only runs on the regular speeds but that's fine by me.

Good luck!

If this is one of the later-model Sunbeams, the housing has an upper half and a lower half. By removing the upper half, you can see the motor and the gear train. You will have to take out one of the beater gear posts and reinsert it to align properly. I suggest you look at both gear posts and check for worn or broken teeth. In which case, you will need to replace the bad part[s].

Older model Sunbeams have a gearbox housing that mounts onto the front of the motor housing. When you remove the gearbox housing, you will see the gear posts inside. Check for worn or broken teeth and replace as necessary. To insure proper alignment when reattaching the gearbox housing, align the two gears relative to each other then push the gearbox housing back onto the motor housing. The motor spindle will slightly turn both gearposts simutaneously during this process but will keep the proper alignment. You may have to repeat this process a number of times until you get it right.

I have the same problem with the West Bend 41036...can we get replacement gears for them?

That spring does not turn the beaters. It is part of the beater release assembly. Probably one of the gears is worn.