Lately I have been hearing weird squeaking sounds from the pellet stove at start up when the the convection blower kicks in.
And I mean only at start up, the first turn of torque.
Sounded like a squeak from the rubber grommet that the impeller is connected to the main output shaft of the motor.
But first things first, I had it set up in the vise to run it and maybe see what is going on, where the actual squeak is coming from. I really couldn't figure out where it exactly came from so I disassembled the motor so I could get better access to the bearings and lubed them first (with mineral oil)
Assembled the whole setup figuring that the lube would have fixed it... But I was wrong again same damn squeak.
After 10 mins of starting and stopping and even putting talcum powder on the rubber parts the squeak was still there.
Sometimes when the motor turned on the squeak persisted a little longer or didn't stop after I aggravated it a little more by slowing down the impeller with my finger
Then I decided to take a closer look a the rotor in the actual motor. I found out that the axle was loose in the rotor and gave me a high pitch squeak when turned by hand.
I figured that maybe an epoxy glue that can handle high temp to get the rotor not to move on the shaft anymore, actually its a bronze bushing where the axle is pressed in and the bronze bushing moved around in the rotor to be exact
So I set out and got me some JB weld since that has helped me before with high temp situations, all Im hoping for is that it isn't throwing it out of balance too much.
After a few hours of curing the rotor is back in and running again with no squeaking anymore
I didn't get the picture from before I put the J B weld on it
This is the angle to put it back on the grommet, easier than to take the motor off and install
Back together
This pellet stove is six seasons old now and some signs of wear and tear are showing, I think that the bearings are still fine but the pockets where the bearing sits in is getting dry. It seems that most of these little bearings have a piece of cloth or sponge kind of material to retain lube and I guess after a couple years they tend to be dry. Nothing in the manual tells you to lube these bearing or have them serviced.
When the lube runs out, your out of luck and buy a new one is what Im getting out of this
From before I cleaned
The heat sink I put on there (with JB weld) last season to cool it down some because it got really hot and I figured cooling it would prolong the lifespan and I'm a firm believer of fixing things that really have life left and making them live longer, clearly Lopi isn't out to do that. The temp before was about 210F and after was about 160F
And I mean only at start up, the first turn of torque.
Sounded like a squeak from the rubber grommet that the impeller is connected to the main output shaft of the motor.
But first things first, I had it set up in the vise to run it and maybe see what is going on, where the actual squeak is coming from. I really couldn't figure out where it exactly came from so I disassembled the motor so I could get better access to the bearings and lubed them first (with mineral oil)
Assembled the whole setup figuring that the lube would have fixed it... But I was wrong again same damn squeak.
After 10 mins of starting and stopping and even putting talcum powder on the rubber parts the squeak was still there.
Sometimes when the motor turned on the squeak persisted a little longer or didn't stop after I aggravated it a little more by slowing down the impeller with my finger
Then I decided to take a closer look a the rotor in the actual motor. I found out that the axle was loose in the rotor and gave me a high pitch squeak when turned by hand.
I figured that maybe an epoxy glue that can handle high temp to get the rotor not to move on the shaft anymore, actually its a bronze bushing where the axle is pressed in and the bronze bushing moved around in the rotor to be exact
So I set out and got me some JB weld since that has helped me before with high temp situations, all Im hoping for is that it isn't throwing it out of balance too much.
After a few hours of curing the rotor is back in and running again with no squeaking anymore
I didn't get the picture from before I put the J B weld on it
This is the angle to put it back on the grommet, easier than to take the motor off and install
Back together
This pellet stove is six seasons old now and some signs of wear and tear are showing, I think that the bearings are still fine but the pockets where the bearing sits in is getting dry. It seems that most of these little bearings have a piece of cloth or sponge kind of material to retain lube and I guess after a couple years they tend to be dry. Nothing in the manual tells you to lube these bearing or have them serviced.
When the lube runs out, your out of luck and buy a new one is what Im getting out of this
From before I cleaned
The heat sink I put on there (with JB weld) last season to cool it down some because it got really hot and I figured cooling it would prolong the lifespan and I'm a firm believer of fixing things that really have life left and making them live longer, clearly Lopi isn't out to do that. The temp before was about 210F and after was about 160F
