Art,
You are certainly right; I am surprised at what an appliance store has. I couldn?t allocate time or gasoline to visit my local stores, but I googled ?appliance parts,? went to the first commercial site offered, and searched ?squirrel cage blower.? It came up with 500 blowers, blower wheels, and related parts, some of which were probably in the ballpark! But I think the OEM blower wheel (now I know the correct term) I have is well-built (albeit plastic; what the heck, our toad is plastic) and quite serviceable, including the hub with the strong metal spring wrapped around it for reinforcement. The fact that it is not absolutely anchored to the shaft is a little bothersome, but it takes quite a firm push to move it and I haven?t heard any complaints of slippage in the forums. To combat the possibility of outward migration on the shaft, I thoroughly cleaned the shaft tip yesterday and coated it with contact cement. To get the shaft and blower wheel dimensions at this point would require another disassembly of the CH box and the blower housing. I?ll do that to provide you with the dimensions for your personal use, if you insist, but not to have you go on some research project on my behalf. I really appreciate your offer and support, though.
Kent,
I know exactly what you mean; the last thing I wanted to do was pull the WH. I mean, I was determined. I wriggled and twisted, and used a bench and some pillows, and my 8-year-old grandson, and I did manage to get a few of the coach heater box screws out. But, as I mentioned on 8/14, all I could do was prop the one side open enough to catch a glimpse of the motor side of the blower assembly. Even if I could have gotten the CH box loose (three screws to the floor, but one completely unreachable), I would not have been able to get it out to work on it. A lot of time, frustration, and achy muscles got me nowhere in the end. I reached in to take pictures, inspected under the coach, behind the front wheel, behind and beside the engine, removed the doghouse, but to no avail. There are no access panels in any of these spots. I also removed the front-most register from my floor distribution duct. Reaching in there, I could lift the flapper door that opens into the duct when the blower is blowing, but even if I enlarged the register opening, as suggested elsewhere, I am now sure I couldn?t have achieved any fix from that end, either. In my coach, my conclusion is that there is no way to get to the blower wheel and motor shaft without removing the WH. It seemed impossible to me at the time, and it is taking lots of time, but the job is definitely doable.
Regarding cutting access panels, I only see one place for that (again, in my coach) which would have any benefit, but it would not get me access to the CH box and blower. ?Troth,? in another forum, cut a rectangular opening under the back of the WH to provide access to valves he added back there and to serve as an inspection port for leaks (a good idea). However, I am going to leave my compartment floor intact, and I am probably going to apply some foam insulation to it from underneath when everything else is finished.
I sense that you are anxious to access your blower. As mentioned, I plan to delineate this whole procedure in detail with pictures, but that is still in the future, maybe a couple of weeks or more. However, I have already written the introduction to that document, I have scads of pictures (over 120), and I can provide some docs from others I have corresponded with. If you want any of that material in its present discombobulated state, I will make it available if you email me at
[email protected].
Lastly (sorry about being so windy here),
While I still wait for parts (the resistor), I yesterday painted the part of the compartment floor where the WH sits; I put connectors in the wires to the compartment light; I removed most of the goo around the WH flange and restored the flange to its 90 degree position. Today I?m thinking about readying some new heater hoses for the reinstallation.
Regards,
Dean
