At 11:50 AM 2/8/2002, JKrevnov@aol.com wrote: >Out of respect for Prof. Brown, I once again tried to bring back to life a >shaded pole fan motor which had stopped doing its thing. It was frozen, so I >broke it apart, polished the shaft, cleaned everything real well and >lubricated the felts with 20 wt. After a couple of days, I found it stalled. > I went through the drill again, but this time I flushed the felts and the >bearings several times with everything I had on hand which said "degreaser" >on its label. After letting it drip dry, I lubed it and the results were the >same. What's a mother to do? I gave up and called Grainger.

I suspect it varies with the individual motor -- the humidifier fan motor that I freed up about seven years ago (it was about 20 years old at the time) is still great. It runs about 50% duty cycle in the winter and sits in the summer. The manual says oil it every year, and to my shame I haven't -- but I'm listening to it hum right now. We run it fairly slow most of the time, so if it isn't pretty free it won't start.

The blower in the Westy actually came from the other one -- but it was frozen solid. I freed it up about 2-3 years ago and it's running like a top. Runs on high all the (driving) time in the summer and usually on lower speed in the winter. Mind you I flushed and oiled and ran and flushed and oiled and ran, left it running overnight, oiled again, ran it another hour or two before putting it back in the blower case.

cheers david

-- David Beierl - Providence, RI http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/ '84 Westy "Dutiful Passage" '85 GL "Poor Relation"