Sunbeam Food Mixers - Page 11 - Recent Questions, Troubleshooting & Support

Try light oil to the button. It might work.

On the outside, it is there to cause the bowl to spin.

If the beaters do not turn, the motor must be shot! In that case the problem is bigger.

Beaters touching can be dangerous as much as not holding in place. Check if the teeth in the beater and the machine are of the same brand and and construction. Make sure you do not use any other mix and match parts because of danger.

For mixmaster junior, but should be relevent to many old sunbeams:

That's not the power cord going to the speed switch. You don't need to get those screws off.
To replace the cord:
Cut the old power cord near where it enters the blender.
remove the two front screws, pull off front housing.
remove 1/4" nuts found in recesses of exposed front plate.
pull speed handle out far enough to get a screwdriver under exposed front plate, and pry gently. It'll come off as it's a friction fit.
cooling fan blade is now visible, you need to remove it.
pry up gently on the teeth attaching it to the motor shaft.
Work your way around the 4 sets of teeth, it'll come off. Don't lose the two washers.
unscrew the electrical contacts.
take off the speednuts holding the brush assembly in place.
gently pull up on the brush assembly with a needle nose, until it comes out.
now remove the screws holding the motor coils in place. They're the same ones the speednuts attached to, and have hex heads you can get at with a needlenose.
once those are out, pull on the motor coils gentle, and wiggle them out of the housing.
You'll see the stub of the old power cord at the back of it.
Get a round replacement wire of the right diameter, thread it through the cord hole in the blender, and connect it up to the coils.
-I had to drill the power cord hole 1/16" larger than it was to get a modern cord to fit through it.
On the stub of the old cord, you'll see a metal ring which serves to anchor the cord in blender body. remove it (screwdriver + needlenose and pry), and attach to new cord at the righ position.
Put everything back together, being careful not to bust the carbon brushes.
Congrats, you now have a functional blender with a cord that won't try to electrocute you.

This could be a lot of things, my approach is to start right at the beginning and work through the electrics to find the fault. Start by making sure the power socket is working (obvious I know). Check to see if the switch on the mixer clicks when you turn the back, also using a multimeter to make sure there is no resistance when it's 'on'. Check the power relay clicks when the power comes on, 2 things go wrong with relays (1) Magnetic coil dies and wont move the contact arm, (2) internal contacts get dirty through use and don't make a good circuit anymore. After checking those I doubt there would be much use looking further unless you're into electronics, as the rest is tied up with the variable resistor in the back twist housing and controls the speed of the motor.

Soft plastic gears inside the machine from what I've read around the web, sorry but you'll need a complete new mixer.I've had one apart to see just how fixable it might be, and it took me about 30 minutes to get the motor and gearbox into a position where they could be looked at. The gearbox had 2 stainless steel clips holding the top cover on and I didn't want to pry at those in case the cover snapped.Not a lot gained from looking inside it sadly.