Reread post #3. How dirty is the hamsters wheel it should be white. It is best to completely remove from the housing. Do this by looking at the black plastic side and you will see 3 little rubber legs protruding through the plastic equally spaced around the motor. Push each of these inwards and lift the motor and wheel out of the housing. Give everything a good clean and spray with WD40. you will see how the cable fits into the housing. Make sure when you are happy it is clean and rotating well that you fully locate the 3 lugs through the housing and are fully locked in place. If you do not do this the assembly sits too high and will catch on the other half when it tries to spin. A tip is to take a photo of each stage as you take things apart, that way you have a reference when rebuilding it.