Air Conditioning Problem

[woodchucker]

what was bad on the squirrel cage? Usually they are just dirty, and need a good toothbrush to clean out each blade.

 

[markba633csi]

I'm glad you can afford a whole new system- I sure wouldn't want to
Fortunately where I live AC is not essential- yet

 

[tq60]

Our system HAD a vfd room air fan that failed under warranty, then magnets kept falling off for years, annual task was putting back on with epoxy until the vfd failed.

The motor is 1000.00 or so.

Not wanting to risk damaging the circuit boards, we paid a tech 400.00 to replace motor with normal 2 speed unit with relays to control it.

The fan may look like crap but motor is a standard off shelf easy item.

Buy motor and cap, install and be good unless you have a vfd type.

That can be swapped to normal motor.

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk

 

[aliva]

Update: the blower motor is shot... and the squirrel cage wheel is also. After removing the outer panel of the air handler unit, it was obvious that the entire unit is in bad condition.

They quoted a fuzz over $1500.00 for repair parts... plus labor...

Bottom line... I let them sucker me into a complete new system, which will be installed tomorrow. The new system has a 15 year warrantee on parts and labor.

-Bear

I think a new unit was the way to go. When repair prices hit 50% of a new unit go for new. Plus you've got a warranty.

 

[woodchucker]

Damn it bear, you had to bring this topic up. My cooling motor on top of the ac unit outside is screaming... Looks like the bearings are shot. I was wondering where that noise was coming from earlier. It went for a few seconds and when I went to find it, stopped.
Now that I am upstairs, it's clear .. Bad time, as we are at the start of a heat wave, and it will be hard to locate a motor by tomorrow..
I have to open up the unit, the motor on top is hard to get at, the wires do not allow the top to come off or bend back...
Grrrrrr.

 

[RJSakowski]

Damn it bear, you had to bring this topic up. My cooling motor on top of the ac unit outside is screaming... Looks like the bearings are shot. I was wondering where that noise was coming from earlier. It went for a few seconds and when I went to find it, stopped.
Now that I am upstairs, it's clear .. Bad time, as we are at the start of a heat wave, and it will be hard to locate a motor by tomorrow..
I have to open up the unit, the motor on top is hard to get at, the wires do not allow the top to come off or bend back...
Grrrrrr.

I have done temporary fixes to bad bearings in fan motors by giving an injection of oil. It works for both bronze bearings and ball bearings.

 

[RJSakowski]

Damn it bear, you had to bring this topic up. My cooling motor on top of the ac unit outside is screaming... Looks like the bearings are shot. I was wondering where that noise was coming from earlier. It went for a few seconds and when I went to find it, stopped.
Now that I am upstairs, it's clear .. Bad time, as we are at the start of a heat wave, and it will be hard to locate a motor by tomorrow..
I have to open up the unit, the motor on top is hard to get at, the wires do not allow the top to come off or bend back...
Grrrrrr.

When I worked on my A/C a week ago, I was able to pull enogh excess wiring form below to access the fan motor, Bu disconecting the wires, I was able to thread them through the wire guides to free the fan which I removed for diagnosis. The wires were pulled tight to prevent them from contact with the rotating blade.

 

[woodchucker]

Yep, that's what I am planning on doing, injecting them. hopefully it's good enough. Thanks.

 

[woodchucker]

Well, it's fixed. I lucked out..
The fan was seized up this morning.
the cutoff breaker popped next to the unit. It's the type that you pull out a double pole prong , but it also cut the power on it's own.
Anyway, this was a plain bearing motor. Once I finally got the blades off tri puller on the sheet metal (yikes) I was avoiding doing that, but it was not coming off, and I could not get around it any other way. I tried prying..
Anyway, it was plain bearing, not bronze sintered. I oiled it stuck the shaft back in and saw it would move .. so I cleaned it up, lubed it with moly grease (a light coat) and stuck it back in... The motor was 160 when I took it out..It was still 115 when I finished. I broke the fiber washer that protect the bearing from being exposed, so I used a tire tube with a nicely fitting hole around the shaft.. so that will hopefully protect it.

It's 78 in here now, we are usually set to 75, so I'm happy I got it running without too much of a problem.

@RJSakowski not enough wire to get it out, I had to open the electrical panel and pull the connections. That surprised me. But happy I am back up.
Took pics of the motor plate so if it does fail in the near future I can source one.

 

[great white]

A bit late to the party, but anyone who has an AC unit on its way out should look into a ductless heat pump system.

Not bad for purchase price and install, way more energy efficient than dedicated AC.

As a bonus, they heat in winter as well.

We have two in the house and they will make it so cold you need a blanket, even when its 30+C outside…