[alltaken]

My mother has a 35 year old electric Sears Furnace. It heats fine, but the fan (or something) makes noises and perhaps a heavy vibration in the plenem (spelling) for a couple of seconds on start up, then appears to run smooth and balanced in the heating phase. When shutting down, the nosie starts up again making a dit, dit, diiittt, ddddddiiiitttt, sound as the fan slows to a stop.

When I open the access panel and manually spin the fan it makes a dragging sound as if the fan is dragging on the housing as some point around it's circumfrance. So I do not suspect the motor itself. Perhaps the fan bearings are failing and causing some unbalanced rotation at slow speeds.

1. Thoughts on the diagnosis?

2. Where can I get parts for such an old beast?

3. How would I go about fining someone knowledgible and capable to repair this old furnance. Or should I just do it?

[alltaken]

12 people have viewed this post and no one has any ideas or thoughts?

[ernesto1959]

If the unit is 120 V , may not use a capacitor, but put current off, take away the whole fan casing and pull the wheel , motor and take it to the motor marketier , he will match it.

[ernesto1959]

If you are in south california (LA, to Riverside ) I can do all the job.

[icehouse]

Sounds like the bearings in the blower wheel are shot.

[alltaken]

Originally Posted by ernesto1959

If the unit is 120 V , may not use a capacitor, but put current off, take away the whole fan casing and pull the wheel , motor and take it to the motor marketier , he will match it.

Why would you suspect the motor to be bad? It runs fine. It is the blower wheel making the noise.

I have seen seen where I can purchase PT# 601211 from Searspartsdirect.com, but am not sure the bears will come with the part.

[alltaken]

Thanks for the reply. You are on my page, in thinking it is only the bearings. I found that I can purchase a blower wheel from Searspartsdirect.com, but not sure it would come with bearings. I called them and talked to a lady. Not to be sexist, but she knew less about this stuff than I do and had zero mechanical sense. So getting the information I need is tough. Do you know if blower wheels typically come with the bearings? For $80, I suppose I could just risk it and order the wheel.

[icehouse]

Model # 867.587751

Part # 601211


Make sure you grab the motor shaft and move it around. This will check motor bearings.