Impeller

I removed the plasic inner parts, used the torx drivers to remove the internal platic plate that covered the sump. Found the food chopper cover and removed it. It had gotten a piece of plastiic wrapped around it. As it spun it had ground the teeth off the end of the drive on the impellor and the food chopper. I replace both as a set and it works fine.

Checked grinder and cleaned it several times, adjusted blades. Dishes would be clean for approx. 6 cycles, then would not clean. Placed dishwasher on its front and removed the motor. Removed grinder and impeller which I found to be worn so that the blades would not turn on the grinder which caused it to collect food particles. The impeller locks in easily.

Removed dishwasher from under the counter and took it to my shop. With the washer on its side, I removed the motor, then the impeller and seal. I then disassembled the motor and replaced the front bearing(purchased separately). This required an arbor press. I then reassembled the motor and installed the new seal and impeller. Reassembled in reverse order. Reinstalled under the counter and made conections. Checked for leaks and proper operation.

.The easiest way to complete the impeller and chopper motor replacement is to disconnect the power, water and drain line, remove the dishwasher from the cabinet, set the washer on its back.

From this point everything is visible, pump housing, motor, etc. and it's a matter of disassembly and reassembly. Make note or a drawing of where all the wires are connected so you reconnect them in the right spots.

Reinstall water lines and power and check for leaks before replacing shield or kick plate.

If your chopper assembly has a catastrophic failure like mine did, chances are it took out the teeth on the circulation motor as well. This will lead to the teeth on the chopper being destroyed by the impeller as soon as you turn the dishwasher back on. First, follow the instructional video to remove the motor (found on this site on the circulation motor page) and chopper assembly (also found on this site on the chopper assembly page). The impeller is screwed onto the input shaft of the motor, and you must keep it from turning so that you can unscrew the impeller assembly. I removed the back cover of the motor (there are four screws holding it on) and held a flat pry bar on the rotating assembly inside the motor to keep it from turning, then unscrewed the impeller from the shaft. Mine came off very easy, but be careful not to let your pry bar slip or damage the motors internals. After that, install the washer and grommet from the impeller seal kit on to the impeller, and screw it back on while keeping the motor from turning with your pry bar. Lastly, reinstall the motor and chopper assembly per the aforementioned instructional videos. The whole thing took around an hour to do, and it is much cheaper than replacing the entire circulation motor.

When the top rack stopped cleaning, I tracked down the problem to the food shredder/chopping blade, and then to the impeller that drives the blade. The knob on the impeller had sheared/broken off. That meant removing the motor, and replacing the impeller. Four hours, a band-aid, and a trip to Home Depot later, here are my suggestions

1. Look for videos – this site is awesome, but they don’t have a video on this particular repair. I found 4 that got me close to knowing what I was doing.
2. Do all the “remove internal stuff” - you had to anyway to find the issue with the shredder/cutting blade
3. Take pictures as you move along, you’ll need them when you have to remember the placement of the water line, drainage hose, wired connections etc.
4. You need a 1/4 inch socket set. A 3/8 drive will NOT work (it won’t fit between the shroud and the base). Don’t start working on the repair, unless you have a 1/4 in socket with about a 6" extension
5. Someone at Kitchenaid should be shot for having the waterline connection facing the back of the unit. Use a short adjustable wrench
6. The order comes with a washer, but when you take the impeller off this model, you’ll see you don’t need it.
7. Placement is everything – there was zero clearance between the bottom of the unit and the floor. Placement of the water line, drain hose, and power line was critical – had to re-position the unit about 7 times to get it to “play nice”.
8. Hindsight – only needed to remove the wire harness for the motor (take pictures)
9. Hindsight – gloves are a great idea – sheet metal is unforgiving

I didn't finish the repair because there was a wrong seal in the kit. The factory impeller kit 8193951A from Whirpool comes with a totally different seal that I took out of the washer and the schematics from their own website and the manual shows the exact same seal that I removed, but is not even close to the one I received. I am stuck with a good dishwasher that I have to junk because of a $2 seal that whirlpool won't help me with. So much for customer service.

The repair was very straightforward. I followed the excellent video provided by Part Select and the repair went exactly as shown in the video.

The only minor challenge was removing the dish washer from the cabinet, and disconnecting the utilities (electrical, water, drain), as these elements of the repair were not covered by the video. Fortunately Part Select included a copy of the installation instructions that come with this dishwasher; those instructions gave me the information that i needed to "uninstall" and "reinstall" the dishwasher as part of the repair.