Air Conditioner Fan Binding/Stopping
Given the clamp that holds the blower on the motor shaft in the Norcold 9300 series AC, I'm absolutely sure we aren't the only ones with this problem. But surprisingly, I couldn't find anything on this in the forum or on the Internet either (maybe I was using the wrong search terms).
I've been dealing with this one for a couple years, where the AC blower would run for awhile, but eventually grind to a scraping stop. I could usually get it running again by removing the filter and reaching up with my left hand and pushing the blower up a bit (don't try this with the switch on). But this season, the AC blower would come to a hard stop in less than 5 minutes.
Yesterday I climbed up there and fixed the problem:
- Remove the AC cover
- Watch out for all those sharp sheet metal edges in there!
- Remove the aluminum sealing tape around the top of the blower housing.
- Pull all the sheet metal screws around the top of the blower housing (motor can remain attached).
- Carefully lift the motor and sheet metal top and turn it over.
- Loosen the clamp the holds the blower on the motor shaft, push the blower back to where it lines up with the end of the shaft, and re-tighten the clamp.
- put it all back together, taking care to use the right screws in the right places.
The bottom line:
- 20 minutes to take it apart
- 5 minutes to fix it
- 20 minutes to put it back together
- Plus: About two hours to drill out the stainless steel AC cover bolt that spun aimlessly instead of unscrewing, going to the hardware store to get a new bolt, a tap for the new hole to screw it into, and aluminum tape to re-cover the joints in the housing.
So I managed to make a half day project out of this, but still less than the time it would have taken to to haul the TM to an RV repair shop and then go back to pick it up again in a day or two.
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2005 TrailManor 3023
2003 Toyota Highlander 220hp V6 FWD
Reese 1000# round bar Weight Distributing Hitch
Prodigy brake controller.
"It's not how fast you can go, it's how fast you can stop an RV that counts."
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