Coleman Furnace Fan Noise

[westcoast redneck]

Sent: 1/13/2005 12:40 PM

Hi I have a 78 brave with a very noise & some times sticking fan..Occasionally I have to use a hotdog stick to give it a little push to get it going.What I want to know is do I have to take the whole furnace out to get at it or can I get at it from the outside port.Do you think it just needs a cleaning & oiling or is it the motor .?Any advise would be great.

[denisondc]

Sent: 1/13/2005 2:32 PM

    I think you have to slide the entire furnace guts into the motorhome to have workable access to things like the fan.  The furnace may have an outer housing that can remain in place.  You would have to undo the propane feed line, the electrical wires, and probably unscrew the exhaust/intake grille from the outside port - then the furnace guts might slide out from its housing.  Turn off the propane and disable the voltage to the thing first of course.
   Your fan could well be stiff from age, and need oiling.  Since it probably doesnt have oiling tubes, its always a trick to get the blower wheel (or wheels) off the shaft, so you can put drops of oil onto the shaft.  You should do both ends of that shaft too if you can.
    It is also very possible your noise and slow starting are due to the remains of a mouse nest or mud dauber nest inside the fan housing.   

   I was admonished that the term for what a table fan has is -fan blades-.  But the term for what is in the car heater and my home furnace is a -blower wheel-. Also known as a squirrel cage blower.     

[westcoast redneck]

Sent: 1/14/2005 12:32 PM

Thanks Denison.  I've taken the Furnace out now.  Cleaned it all up,checked wires etc.Nothing obvious. I did hook up power straight up to the motor & nothing so it's probably shot.  Going to check around & see who services these things. Don't want to go through all that to replace the motor install it & find there's something else too. Take care

[denisondc]

Sent: 1/14/2005 2:26 PM

You might start asking at an HVAC supplier/distributor.  Those motors are fairly standard, but maybe not easy to find.  If you can find a model # and make on the motor... maybe you could order one.   

[westcoast redneck]

Sent: 1/14/2005 7:10 PM

Eh Denison. Sorry for my ignorance,what does HVAC stand for.? I'm on Vancouver Island Canada.  I know the model # but can't get close enough to get anything from the motor but I'm sure the model # will do.  Had a big snow fall out here.  The tarp type shelter I had over the Winnie is toast.  Back to the drawing board.

[denisondc]

Sent: 1/14/2005 9:08 PM

HVAC is heating/ ventilation/air-conditioning. The usual yellow pages entries for this category are retailers and tradesmen, the guys who install furnaces, air conditioners for you.
They get their parts from the wholesalers or distributors, and those are the people who might have catalogs of 12 volt blower motors.
I wish I could be encouraging that having the furnace model number will help you get a new motor at all, unless you are going to approach the original maker or a better-than-usual RV specialty business. I have found that no one seems to have the detailed specs on old furnaces, other than the original maker, and for a furnace more than 10 years old, I doubt they would either.
Even with home furnaces, I find I need to get the model #, part # or i.d. # from the motor itself. Then the HVAC wholesaler can look up in his (online) motors catalog, to get the same horsepower, speed, voltage, case dimensions, shaft length and diameter, and direction of rotation. Or you could take the motor into such a business, and hope they want to help.
I did a search at google.com, using this in the search line: +heating +motors +furnace +"12 volt" , with spaces between the end of one word and the plus-sign in front of the next word; so it would show me only websites that had All of those 4 terms in them. The quotation marks tell it to look for "12 volt" combined, not just for “12” and for “volt”. If you do exactly the same you will see the same results I did. You can poke around amongst the websites listed, you might stumble on the business that would have the motor you need in stock. The url www.rvadvice.com/AA.html was interesting, if only to show that even newish RVs have plenty of problems. A site like www.electricmotorwarehouse.com might be able to refer you to another business, if they are not able to help you.
It cant hurt to try lots of places: www.ericksonsrv.com/Parts.htm. This was fun: www.rvadvice.com/dinos.html.
Somewhere in North America the 12 volt motor you need is waiting on a shelf!
If you can get the motor out and apart, you might find it only needs to have crud cleaned off of its commutator or its brushes.

[westcoast redneck]

Sent: 1/18/2005 7:40 PM

Eh Denis.Got the furnace back to day.It was just the motor plus 1 & a half hr labor. Still with taxes 312$.154 for the motor & 79$ an hr labor. Don't know how they justify that kind of labor cost.I sure give it to the do-it yourselvers, you can save money.I can do some ,but I know my limits. Now I have to find a buddy that has a flaring tool for the copper  propane hose connector.The fastener had a crack in it.Take care

[denisondc]

Sent: 1/18/2005 8:08 PM

That price for the motor is about what I would have expected. You were paying for all of the inventory costs, the risk of the investment someone made in having them on the shelf for you to buy someday maybe. The guy who did the labor might have gotten 1/4th of that $79, the rest going into the cost of the building, the mortgage on the land, the insurance, and other overhead costs.
Auto parts stores would probably have an inexpensive flaring tool, to make single flares. The copper should still be pretty malleable and easy to form a flare on. It would be a good idea to support the copper line, about a foot from the stove, with a bracket where the copper was gripped/supported in rubber, not metal. This would help keep the copper tubing from cracking again at the furnace connection.

[firebug911]

Sent: 1/19/2005 7:36 PM

Fasco is a manufacture that builds some 12 volt dc motors for school bus heaters and big truck heaters and so forth... I dont deal in the 12 volt stuff but I am a dealer for there a/c motors and such... www.fasco.com   Most of the time they are reasonably priced.   Rob

[DaveVA78Chieftain]

Sent: 1/23/2005 1:15 PM

For reference,
The blower motors use oil impregnated bronze bearings.  As far as I know you cannot really lubricate them such that it lasts for any extended length of time.  Be careful if you take one of these motors apart because of the way the brushes are installed.  You can easily break the plastic brush hold downs.  While it would be nice to know the source for where the RV shop got your motor, here is a web site that lists parts for Coleman furnaces:
http://www.rvdealership.com/
They list the blower motor for my old furnace at $101.00
Dave

[westcoast redneck]

Sent: 1/23/2005 10:55 PM

Eh thanks to all.The furnace is back in works great.  Left it on for a couple of days to give it a good run.

[RANGERRICK]

If you need  a motor i may be able to help you.I have some older coleman heater parts.