Newell Gurus

I thought I heard felt a unusual rumble through the night. Examination this morning revealed that the blower absolutely ate the oilite bushing last night. It ate it so bad that the shaft wore into the hard metal of the bushing holder and scored the shaft. Now this is a problem because one, no coach power while at my mothers, two can't sleep in her house because she is a smoker and it stuffs me up, three we are supposed to leave this morning as soon as the new air bag is installed, four Grainger doesn't have a new blower in stock and it will be another day to get one. Sigh.....the kingdom is lost for want of a nail story[attachment=2606]

So, it's off to the tractor supply to see what can be done. I was lucky and found a sealed bearing with a 1 inch bore, they also had the holder for the bearing but it was four hole mounting and the fan has three spokes. I used a u clamp to bridge two holes and one spoke, and I used J hooks to capture the other two spokes.

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[attachment=2607]For some reason I couldn't load the second pic

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And oh yeah, you are asking didn't i notice anything prior to such a bearing melt down. No. The pilot bushing on the side that failed split in two and actually pushed out of its holder. That why it failed so quickly.

richard, i replaced the blower in both newells. the mounting plate on the back of the blower is welded on and was done by newell. so you would have had to cut the old one off and find a welder to weld the new one on.

so fixing what you got was a good choice.

tom

Good job Richard

that'll last forever!!!!
Thanks for the post. I have been considering replacing bearings prophylactically but haven't got to that on my to-do list.

In the middle of the Wednesday night while parked at Camp Walmart north of Cincinnati I heard an occasional loud bang. Upon checking it out it appears my blower has a bad bearing. Oh well, something more to tinker with.

Richard: did you just change the one bearing or do both sides? I'm assuming it was the pulley side that went bye-bye>

Jon,

It was the pulley side. I did replace both. The ones at TSC are greasable. When I got home I used 3/8 rod, welded it to the bearing holder to make four spokes, and then welded the spokes to the cage. It looks a lot better than the bolted up arrangement.

If you go the welding route, make sure the shaft is perpendicular to the housing before you get too far.

Richard: thanks, you reminded me of what I saw at your coach. Did you consider sealed bearings rather than greased? The reason I'm asking is that the forward side of my fan is tucked pretty tight against the dash HVAC box and that would save cobbling a grease extension.

The bearings I got at TSC had seals. On the outside race there is a small hole. There is a channel in the bearing holder that connects to the zerk on the holder on allows grease to flow into the small hole mentioned.

I am not trying to say my solution is the best one. It was the one I had available at the time.

Later on that trip, the motor blower bearings also went south. I found that motor at TSC also, for less than the Grainger price.

Hi Richard ,
Can you post a pic of the permanent repair? I'm assuming you repaired it w/o removing the blower from the coach?

I'll get a pic next time I'm at the coach. I did pull the blower for the permanent fix when I welded the bearing holder to the blower. I did not pull the blower the first time when I cobbled together a temp arrangement.

It's cake. Take the motor off. Only six screws held mine up.