I was looking for a good source for a fan motor for a Whirlpool Model ACQ088XP0 A/C window unit
First one was replaced first year under warranty, big deal warranty, labor not included so it cost me about $100. :-(
Now, 6 or 7 years later, bad fan motor again. The problem is the same as the first time. I could spin the motor by hand, but as soon as I applied power, it comes to a screeching halt.
Examination inside motor shows slight wear on rotor and on the armature. At first I only saw the one wear mark, then getting a better look inside the armature, I see the wear wasn't only at one spot on the armature. At the opposite end and side there was a little more wear.
I've worked on many similar but smaller motors and am used to the "bronze ball shaped bushing" at each end. I put it together and turned it on and it hummed real loud. I then started tapping the case with a hammer, all the way around until the motor took off, nice and quiet. Continued to tap around and it stopped a few more times. kept tapping all around until it worked no matter where I hit it.
Seems the tolerances of these things is not the greatest and sometimes the bushings will move enough for the rotor to scrape the armature. Hammering on it actually centered it.
The rest of it had a lot of dirt,leaves, dead bugs,.... so I took it outside to give it a good cleaning. (covered the motor and electronics with plastic bags) It should soon be done basting in the sun, then I'll put it together again. BTW, a new fan motor is about $160. A new unit is about $250, and this thing was mounted in the wall. It would have sucked to resize the hole for a new unit.