# Advice on stuck rotors?



## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

I have a rotor that keeps getting jammed up, and stops rotating. I suspect sand is the culprit. It's happened enough times that I need to do something about it. I have fairly sandy soil, and mostly stainless steel I20s. It's one of those that is acting up. Here is what happens:

The head pops up ok, but does not rotate. It seems to get stuck anywhere, but sometimes at the far right stop. It waters the street, I'm afraid, when this happens. When I try to rotate it, I can feel resistance, like the sand has jammed it. When i turn it, it moves entirely out of its arc that it's set at. I have it set to 90 degrees, and the head moves beyond that arc when I grab it. I can temporarily get it to work by rotating it back and forth a few times, and it resets back to the correct arc automatically after that. But I still feel grit; it never goes away totally.

Hunter's site suggests a dirty filter in the bottom is the likely cause of a rotor not rotating, and to remove and clean the filter. This requires taking the darn thing totally apart and removing and cleaning the internal filter screen. I didn't even know you could do that. That of course requires digging it up first. If I'm going to have to dig it up, I'm not just going to clean the filter; I'm going to replace the head with a known functioning one as well.

Any advice? Anyone figured out a solution?


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## BadDogPSD (Jul 9, 2020)

I'd dig it up and replace it. I'd also flush out the line before installing the new one.
Hopefully you don't have a cracked line that's letting dirt get in.
Fix (if it can be) the old one and keep it as a spare.


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## Justmatson (Apr 4, 2020)

@Green 
You dont need to dig it up at all to check and clean.

Just unscrew the rotor from the body. No digging required. Once you unscrew the rotor and pull it out the screen/ check valve will be on the bottom of the rotor.


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

Justmatson said:


> @Green
> You dont need to dig it up at all to check and clean.
> 
> Just unscrew the rotor from the body. No digging required. Once you unscrew the rotor and pull it out the screen/ check valve will be on the bottom of the rotor.


Excellent. I will still have to dig a little, because the screw cap is definitely buried. But at least I may not have to dig the whole thing up. Thanks. Just saved me a lot of time.

I'll unscrew a spare one ahead of time, and then just drop that in. Then I'll take apart the existing one and try to clean it. If I'm successful, it'll go into the extra pile for use another time.


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