Front A/C unit blower.

[garysfb]

Last night I was woken up by an unfamiliar noise. Turned out to be the front unit's blower. It works but makes a nasty scraping noise. Tomorrow morning I'll journey up to see what I can see. Seems like an easy chore to pull the cover and find out what's wrong. I'll report my findings in the AM. Fortunately we're in cooler weather so I flipped off the breaker for now.

[bevandtomH]

Gary, my A/C cover has Torx head screws so you may bring that with you up there.
By your description it may be the squirrel cage.
They were hard to find last year. The blower fans were available on line at the time I repaired mine.
Good luck.

[bevandtomH]

Giving this some more thought, when my squirrel cage let go, I thought the A/C was going to come through the roof.
Hopefully yours is in good shape.

[garysfb]

Thanks for the heads up on the TORX, that will save me a trip. I remember reading about a few squirrel cage issues. This does not sound as bad. Maybe a lose bolt?

[Mwoodofd]

When my AC cage failed, only half of it shattered and broke. The AC would run and blow air, but it was off balance - maybe yours partially broke?

[jbhobbs54]

Just replaced our front blower fan last month. Made a lot of racket before I got it shutdown. Easy project once you get the replacement part.

[garysfb]

Apparently the squirrel cage lost a couple of blades throwing it out of balance and shaking the motor so hard it broke the PLASTIC base around the bolts holding it down.

Starting the process now of locating parts...any suggestions? Squirrel cage should be easy, not sure about the motor base.

[jbhobbs54]

See if you can find a part number on the base. I found the one on the cage and just typed that in amazon and it came up right away.

[garysfb]

Originally Posted by jbhobbs54

See if you can find a part number on the base. I found the one on the cage and just typed that in amazon and it came up right away.

Thanks! Got the cage ordered but running into a brick wall on the base. No cell service and no luck on line, no number visible without taking off the motor. Cage will be a week, by then I think I can figure a way to add a metal piece over the base corners and drill in two bolts to fasten the existing plate down.

[bevandtomH]

See if you can fabricate your own support if you can not get one from Coleman.
Dumb design IMO.
Also, make sure you grab any loose fins/pieces that went down the air shaft.
I bought one of those UV “welders” from ACE but have not tried it yet. Figured I have nothing to lose on a repair and emergency.

[Poppedclams]

Yes on squirrel cage

[Poppedclams]

Don't over tighten the new cage You Got this Bring all tools up tighten any thing that may be loose. Wiring etc

[garysfb]

Well the squirrel cage came in, as said above, easy change out. Pretty easy to fix the broken base plate as well. A trip to Lowes for 2 inch predrilled metal strips and 3/4 inch self tapping screws and its better than new. Fortunately there is about a half inch gap between the bottom of the A/C unit and the roof, so no danger of penetrating the roof. I was also able to use the existing bolt and nut on the broken corner on one end of the metal band-aid.

[garysfb]

Correction on my first post. The base plate is metal, not plastic. Must have been some serious vibration to break those corners. Also could not see or feel the broken fins. Maybe they'll end up at one of the front air registers, project for another day.