Extruder says there filament in it even after cleaning? Maybe a fix

I’ve seen a few posts about printer saying that there is filament in the extruder even though the user has cleaned it or maybe after clearing a clog with a tool. I just noticed while investigating my spare extruder that it’s possible for the lever that the filament pushes toward the hall effect sensor to get stuck. It may not be possible to unstick it without removing the Extruder Filament and Cutter Sensor Assembly. See this wiki for details on how to remove it.

The lever is the little silver bit sticking out of the lower end of the sensor assembly, On my spare, I can push it with my finger, simulating filament passing through the assembly and get the lever stuck on a ledge in the plastic body every time. When installed in the extruder, it’s buried and can’t be seen nor touched but it is easy enough to get to with it removed from the extruder as shown in the wiki.

extruder switch and fitting

Same thing happened to me. I used a small file to clean up the clear plastic. Then the switch started to work properly. I’m still using that extruder but i do have a spare waiting. I was using TPU 95A when that happened.

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Ran across this article after having a lot of issues with the printer asking to remove the spool. When I removed the sensor, there was the TINYEST bit of filament; like a hair, stuck in there. Pulled on it and what came out the other side looked like a small arrowhead of filament. Reassembled and voila; it’s back to working. Thanks for this!

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So, I had the same problem but it was actually the spring on the sensor that had slipped off allowing the lever to move freely back and forth. Super tiny spring, but it had come disconnected… when I would reassemble it it always thought that it had filament b/c the sensor magnet was tripped. Reattached the spring to the sensor lever and it was able to recognize that there actually was no filament in the extruder.

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