Creality Ender 3 Pro Extruder Replacement

Introduction

This guide's intention is to solve problems like your filament grinding in your Creality Ender 3 Pro. This is often caused by the extruder arm applying too much pressure (or too little) to the filament. To complete this guide, you should have a replacement extruder ready for your extruder mechanism, which you can purchase online.

All the tools you need are a 2.5 mm hex key, a 8 mm wrench, and around 10-15 minutes of your time!

What you need

Step 1 Setting the nozzle temperature

Creality Ender 3 Pro Extruder Replacement, Setting the nozzle temperature: step 1, image 1 of 3

Creality Ender 3 Pro Extruder Replacement, Setting the nozzle temperature: step 1, image 2 of 3

Creality Ender 3 Pro Extruder Replacement, Setting the nozzle temperature: step 1, image 3 of 3

Press the knob to enter the marlin LCD menu and turn it to navigate between the options.
Navigate to Temperature > Nozzle.
Adjust the nozzle temperature by turning the knob and confirm by pressing it.
Use whatever temperature you would be printing with, minus about 10°C. For both PLA and PETG 210°C usually works fine.

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Step 2 Wait for the hotend to heat up

Creality Ender 3 Pro Extruder Replacement, Wait for the hotend to heat up: step 2, image 1 of 1

Wait until the current temperature (bottom) matches the target temperature (top).

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Step 3 Pull the filament

Creality Ender 3 Pro Extruder Replacement, Pull the filament: step 3, image 1 of 1

Press down on the extruder lever arm and pull out the loaded filament.
Fully pressing down the lever arm might lead to the filament snagging when you try to pull it out. Just pressing it a bit will usually suffice.

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Step 4 Set cooldown

Creality Ender 3 Pro Extruder Replacement, Set cooldown: step 4, image 1 of 1

Navigate to Temperature and press Cooldown.
If you do not have the Cooldown-option available, you can just repeat step one and set the temperature to 0°C instead.

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Step 5 Extruder

Creality Ender 3 Pro Extruder Replacement, Extruder: step 5, image 1 of 3

Creality Ender 3 Pro Extruder Replacement, Extruder: step 5, image 2 of 3

Creality Ender 3 Pro Extruder Replacement, Extruder: step 5, image 3 of 3

Use a 8 mm wrench or some pliers to unscrew the PTFE tube from the extruder mechanism.

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Step 6

Unscrew the single M3x18 socket head screw with a 2.5 mm hex key.
Remove the extruder arm and spring.

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Step 7

Use a 2 mm hex key to remove the three remaining M3x10 socket head screws while making sure to not let the motor drop.
Remove the plastic bracket and the motor.

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