Air Conditioner Fan Blade Replacement
BACKGROUND
Before we moved to Dallas, we lived in a townhouse in Pembroke Pines Florida when Hurricane Andrew hit with full force about 15 miles south of us. We had over 100 MPH winds constantly for about eight hours straight. The wind sounded horrible, and you could hear things popping and snapping outside all night long. Several palm trees blew over beside of us, but we were relatively unscathed. The back of the house faced a lake and was glass from ceiling to floor. The glass shimmed in and out like a bowl of jello. But, It didn't break.
We did see St. Elmo's fire dancing like a first time New Year's Eve drunk across the surface of the lake and across the power lines across the lake behind us.
THE REPAIR
No damage, except where the flying palm frond went through the wire cover on the top of the central air conditioner on the roof and into the fan blade. It stopped the blade in its tracks. It mangled the blade. Since residential air conditioner repairs were low on the priority list of contractors after the storm, I climbed up and took the old fan and motor assembly out. I bought a replacement fan from an air conditioning supply house.
After getting back inside the townhouse, I removed the lock nut off of the motor shaft. Easy enough. But after years of sitting and spinning, the blade was stuck tight on the motor shaft. I didn't have a gear puller, which would have made short work of taking the mangled blade off, so I used a an automotive ball joint separator and some muscle to get it off. I reconnected the motor wires to the unit and straightened out the wire cover as best as I could.
You can see the old, torn up blade and the new one installed on the motor in the pictures.
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