Air Handler - Detach fan from motor

[jay]

Hello

I don't really know what I'm talking about. Pardon my terminology.

Anyway..

My air handler started making some noise last week. The a/c guy came out and said I should replace the handler for $1650. I'm not in a huge rush to do that.

Playing with it myself, it looks like the motor is spinning, but the fan blade (what do you call it?) isn't keeping up.

The fan is bolted on to the motor. The piece (around the axel) that the bolt goes into spins freely independent of the axel. That doesn't seem right.

I'm trying to take the fan off the motor and can't get it. I took the bolt out and thought it would slide from there, but I can't get it to budge. Is there a trick to this, or is just about brute force and/or the right tools? I can get the pice to spin on the axel, but not slide out.

In the end, I hope that all I need is a new fan. As far as I can tell, the motor is fine.

Any help?

Thank you

[Bob]

The thing with the bolt in it is called the 'hub'. Does the fan blade move when you turn the hub around, or can you hold onto the fan blade and turn the hub by itself?

[jay]

Hello

I can turn the hub independent of the wheel.

I got the wheel off the motor. I can hold the hub still and spin the wheel freely about my hand. I'm assuming that's bad?

The next trick is finding the replacement part. I can't find anything about this model. The air handler is a FIRST CO 48TVDX10-HP, with a wheel part number of W37. Any suggestions on how to find a replacement?

Thanks for your help.

[buffalobill]

maybe:

or stop by your nearby:

[Bob]

If the blower housing and motor are ok, then you can probably just buy the blower wheel (aka fan part thingy). You need to know the diameter and width. (Most residential are for 1/2" motor shafts.) Your best bet is to take it to your local HVAC supply house, if they don't have one, they can order it. Graingers also sells a few made by Lau Industries (aka Lau Conaire).

also makes a full line of replacement blower wheels & parts. The technician should have at least given you the option of repairing your blower. If it was late on a Friday, he probably didn't want to be bothered. After this is all over, find yourself a good HVAC company. Depending on the age, it might be time to replace the system before other (more expensive) parts start to break.

[SQLit]

Lau also makes a full line of replacement blower wheels & parts.

Fan housings/blades are usually held on to the shaft with Allen sockets, or bolts. Have you tried fighting it?

[Bob]

The problem was, that the hub had broken away from the blower wheel.

> Lau also makes a full line of replacement blower wheels & parts.

replacement?

[Jeff Wisnia]

If you've got a buddy who welds, ask him to see if he can tack weld the hub onto the fan wheel end plate .... and it'll be almost as good as new. As long as he keeps the welds small and evenly spaced around the hub, it shouldn't affect the balance enough to worry about.

I had a blower wheel like that fail on me with a circular crack almost all the way around the hub part. I decided it was better to replace it with a new one, despite having to pay nearly $80 for it at a local HVAC supply place because it was winter and I couldn't wait the time needed to buy one on line for about a quarter of that price. (As Confucious reportedly said, "When rape is inevitable, just lie there and try and enjoy it." )

I've got a name I could call that a/c guy of your, but it wouldn't be polite. He should have charged you an hourly rate for all his travel and the time it took to diagnose an obviousity, go out and buy the fan wheel, and come back and install it. I'm not against any workman getting paid for his time and knowledge, but trying to sell a customer with a whole new air handler because of a not uncommon simple problem like that is just plain wrong.

Now, if you failed to mention that there were other parts dying which the a/c guy pointed out were going to turn the whole air handler into trash shortly, disregard the preceeding paragraph.

HTH,

Jeff

[Bob]