Furnace pimp

[kickaha]

Night before last, we turned on the heat in the house for the first time this year... or we tried to, at least. We had flame (gas), but no air circulation. I go down to inspect Ye Olde Beastie, and on bending down to take a peek, I hear a whining sound. The motor was *trying* spin, but no go. Hmm.

I take a rubber mallet (no metal on metal action around a gas line, please...) and give it a bop. No go. So I stick the mallet head into the fan assembly and give it a twirl, and it goes, and keeps going. Excellent! So for the past two days the routine has been, morning and night: turn on heat at thermostat to something a bit higher than normal. Run down to basement, make sure flames are lit. Manually spin up blower fan. When temp is reached and furnace goes off, turn off heat at thermostat.

Well I just figured it was a dying motor, and call a furnace company. Nov 2 is their first available. Hmm.

Got to thinking, and talking with some folks, and two recommendations came up: oil the bearings, and check the motor run capacitor. I finally figured out this morning how to pull the whole blower fan assembly from the furnace, and I found the oil port, so in went some 3-in-1, and yup, it spun *much* more smoothly. Excellent. But not enough to get going at first still. I partially pull the capacitor out of the back of the housing as the next step, and get the model info, and specs: 5uF, 370V. Big sucker, lower rating than I thought it would have, but it could still cause a nasty spark.

I call around town to every damned heating supply company, and finally find one that has the part. But they won't sell to me, since I'm not a contractor. I find another one, same thing. On 'Wholesale Only' #3, I finally blurt out "This is how you keep the contractors in business, by not letting people fix their own damned stuff, isn't it?" He hung up on me, and I can't really blame him. FINALLY found a parts house that sells to the public (D & L Parts, 2423 Atlantic Ave - spread the word), and went and got the replacement piece. $3.74.

Then, after some slightly nervous capacitor discharge antics (which turned out to be moot, it was well and truly dead dead dead), and putting the new one in, I tested it, and voila. Not only does it work, but it is blowing *SIGNIFICANTLY* more air. Oiled bearings, new capacitor, fresh air filter will do that.

All I needed to do was lube the blower and put a cap in its ass.

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