Auxilary blower on 35U

[dirko]

Hi Ho: We finally got time to take out the water heater on work on the aux blower. (By the way, you don't have to take out the water heater, just know which screws to take out)

Anyway, the motor is made by Bosch and the blower is a squirrelcage that is fastened with a spring clip on the shaft. So the outer bearing is easy to get to, but the plastic cover makes the other bearing inaccessable for oil etc.

My question is: Has anyone tried to drill holes in the plastic cover to get to the inner bearing? Has anyone tried to remove the spring clamp. It looks like it isn't meant to come off and probably won't hold when put back on.

Oil did help the outer bearing, but the inner one is still .

Dirk

[DancinCampers]

Hi Dirk,

The spring will come off by twisting opposite the turns. My bearings turned out ok, I tapped the end of the motor shaft while holding the cage. This brought the cage slightly further out away from the motor (the inside of the cage had been rubbing against the motor).

The first time I did this the cage migrated toward the motor again after about 6 months and locked up. The second time I removed the spring, installed 2 9mm screws (very short ones) 180deg apart near the end, and molded on a glob of hi temp epoxy putty that covered the screws and the end of the steel shaft. So far so good. The epoxy keeps the cage from migrating toward the motor end housing.

[dirko]

Hi Ho Dan: Thanks for the idea. Since I didn't take the spring clip off I didn't get to check for rubbing on the cover. That's a real possibility since the thing makes a good deal of noise, especially on low speed. Oil did seem to make the shaft rotate more easily and more smoothly.

thanks again, Dirk