Blower motor not working

[bluestream1]

Hey all,

My blower motor stopped working. I have checked the mini fuse, the maxi fuse and the relay, and all are good. That leaves the motor itself, and the switch for me to look at .

Anything else I should check?

 

[koda2000]

try turning the fan on and hitting the motor with something. if it starts working it's definitely the motor. the only part you didn't mention is the ballast resistor. that's the part that allows you to have multiple blower speeds. it's basically a voltage reducer.

 

[bluestream1]

I figured if the resistor was bad, it should still work on hi. I taped it with a hammer, and she fired right up. Looks like I may have a bad spot on the armature...

I'm guessing it wont last too long before doing this again.

 

[koda2000]

I figured if the resistor was bad, it should still work on hi. I taped it with a hammer, and she fired right up. Looks like I may have a bad spot on the armature...

I'm guessing it wont last too long before doing this again.

yep, bad motor (worn out brushes or dead spot on the armature) and it will not continue to work for long. you could just carry a hammer around with you.

 

[J_C]

Rarely it's just that the sleeve bearings went dry, that you can pry it apart (if bolted or bent-tab held together instead of spot welded) clean and lube the bearings with medium weight oil, making sure to saturate the felt reservoir pads if any are present. This seems more likely in your case because hitting it got it to start.

 

[shadowless127]

Rarely it's just that the sleeve bearings went dry, that you can pry it apart (if bolted or bent-tab held together instead of spot welded) clean and lube the bearings with medium weight oil, making sure to saturate the felt reservoir pads if any are present. This seems more likely in your case because hitting it got it to start.

A new blower motor is <$40 from Advance. Just buy a new one

 

[koda2000]

do yourself a favor and just get a new motor unless you want to r&r your old worn out motor 3-4 times. i doubt lubing it will work anyway. don't forget that motor's got a ton of hours on it and they don't last forever.

 

[J_C]

I lubed my ~ $200 furnace blower over 5 years ago and it still works. Back in the day motors had lube holes so you could DIY but now they claim "not user servicable" as if that's something positive when it just saved them $0.001 to not drill the holes.

I agree that it may not be worth the hassle if you can get a replacement for $40, but it may get it working again until you have the replacement installed, which can be helpful in the middle of summer heat. It's not like that risks anything or costs any money... I sort of get the impression that there's an assumption about lubing bearings instead of actually doing it.

Bearings do need lubed on every sleeve bearing motor, ideally before they run dry instead of after. We all have better things to do but if there is a bearing problem... The question then is how bad it wore, the retention level of added lube.