Richard: thanks, I think I'll start pulling it tomorrow. I could see only 6 screws holding mine. I'm surprised that is all that holds it, but hey, it's been there for 22 years and 100,000 miles so it must work.
When we visited your coach a few weeks ago I had no clue I would need to know what you showed me about the bearing, silly me.
Ok, so don't make fun of my welding.
Here are a couple of shots of one side.
[
attachment=3154]
[
attachment=3155]
Since the bearing housing is square, it doesn't play well with the tri spoke that holds the original bushing. I left one side intact, and mounted the bearing and housing on the other side. I tacked the rod to the sides of the bearing housing, and then aligned the shaft to get it as perpendicular as possible to the blower housing. I then tacked the rods to the blower housing.
I went to the other side and repeated the same operation. The bearing is free to pivot a little in the housing so again I was careful to maintain the alignment. If you don't get the alignment right, it will be hard to get the pulleys to align in the same plane and the belt will complain.
I never said it was purty.
Thanks for the pic ,Rich. The welds look fine, especially for welding steel to cast. Besides when it comes to welding I say purty-is as purty-does.
Hey Richard, your welding looks far superior to mine so all I can do is admire a great job.
Yesterday I went to the local Motion Industries warehouse and the great guy behind the counter helped me identify a shielded ball bearing with a rubber surround that will fit directly into the existing mount for the Oilite bearing. Mine was worn through just like Richard's. Once I prove that these new bearings really do fit correctly I'll post the part number. I did not know, until the guy behind the counter raised the issue, that there is a whole class of bearings designed for use in fans. When he looked in that category he came up with what we hope is a simple and durable solution.
I'm very interested in your findings,Jon!!!
The Timken RCSM 1 ball bearing works fine. I removed the old Oilite bearing by prying it out of the rubber holder with a small screwdriver and then prying the rubber holder out. I then polished the shaft to remove any rust. Next I pressed the new ball bearing assemblies into the bearing holder on the fan with a C-clamp aided by having sprayed the exterior of the new bearing with some WD-40. It would have made the job quicker if I had paid attention before disassembly as to how the fan was positioned side-to-side inside the housing. The rotor now spins far more freely than before.
Depending on how your fan is positioned in the compartment it may be possible to install these new bearings without removing the fan housing from the coach. It would be easier to keep things in alignment if the bearings were removed and replaced one at a time, but it would also make polishing a little more difficult so you may need to assess the extent of rust on the shaft.
It's a pretty easy job requiring minimal tools and now I won't hear the thing go "bump" in the night.
Good news Jon.
A further word on this whole setup, with due credit given to Bestgenman (Gordon), for bringing it to my attention. The pulleys for both my blower and motor were worn out. I really think that I kept adding tension to keep the belt from squeaking, and the added attention led to the catastrophic failure on the pulley side. The V's wear in the pulley and the belt loses it's grip on the V when the bottom of the belt hits the bottom of the pulley. Anyhow, if you have to take the pulley off to replace the bearing, I would replace the pulley too.
An old mechanic told me to "paint" the flat at the bottom of the pulley with machinists blue or a permanent marker. If the belt rubs it off the pulley is wore out.
geez guys, now you tell. The fan is back in the coach. Just teasing, I'll check it out and change pulleys if I have to. We don't need any excess tension in our coaches.