Blower wheel stuck on shaft

hvaclover

What procedures do you guys use to get a stuck blower wheel off a shaft?

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Not Stupid, Just slow

The Dangling Wrangler

Probably the same things you do.

Sand the shaft, oil 'er down, use a blower wheel puller.
Worst case, buy a new one. I've tried using the torch. It ain't a pretty sight.

hvaclover

Yeah, I got my way but am just curious how other guys would tackle the job.

__________________
Not Stupid, Just slow

The Dangling Wrangler

When I get one that's real bad, I make the helper do it. He's responsible for everything then.

jvegas

I think that happened to me 20 something years ago did I work with you before

The Dangling Wrangler

I'll never tell.

Yuri

I just hope that when my apprentices really screw something up they forget I trained them when the authorities come knockin.

G 71

Big hammer and a brass bar.

jvegas

Is that to help the apprentice to forget

DuMass

I will normally try the A/T Rust Buster first for removing blower wheels and pulleys. It's a clear, slippery, water like liquid that apparently has been used in auto repair shops since the 1970's, but I only found out about it maybe ten years ago.
I loosen the setscrews and give a few good squirts between the shaft and hub followed by a few light "love taps" to the hub collar with a with a drift punch and ball peen. This usually breaks them loose, but if not, I then completely remove the setscrews and flood the shaft and setscrew holes again and repeat.

If I still get attitude from the blower wheel, I will use a small Uniweld Mapp hand torch that has fairly long reach tip to heat the shaft and hub for about 20-30-seconds, then shock the hub with spray from a bottle of glass cleaner that I always carry to clean off flux and grubby finger prints. This followed by another quick flood of the rust buster, which gives off a fluffy white cloud when heated, so don’t breath it… and a few more "love taps" will usually do the trick.

Only if all the above fails, is when the hub pullers come out. I have a couple of different sizes of those as well as wheel pullers, but these are rarely necessary.

BTW: "Rust Buster" is the clear liquid from Atwater Supply [A/T], not the brown stuff similarly named "Rust Breaker".
Judging from the odor, I think the brown rust breaker is just repackaged CRC. I've used it and it works, but nowhere near as well as the clear rust buster does on blower wheels or pulleys.

mechanicalDvr

I start with taking the set screws out and applying rust buster, then the puller, and if that doesn't work I will cut the shaft, set the shaft into a pipe and beat out the cut off section with the hub resting on the pipe. I find that others I have worked with that use heat sometimes warp the wheel and it will never spin balanced again.

DuMass

You can't control what others you work with do, but I really think it comes down to the monkey with a hand grenade scenario!
The skill level of the individual performing the work will generally dictate the outcome. They really don’t need a screaming air/acetylene torch or even oxy/ace for the job. A simple Mapp hand torch with a lowered flame is normally the ideal tool for the task at hand. The idea is simply to utilize the time tested heat, shock, and lube method, which capitalizes on differing expansion/contraction characteristics of the hub and shaft.

I think this parallels the old technique that we have used to change out blower shafts and pillow blocks on roof-mounted blowers of a commercial kitchen hoods. That being, where the new replacement blower shaft is placed in a walk-in freezer overnight and the pillow blocks are warmed in an oven the morning before the install.

hvaclover

i would never think of putting flame to a hub. I always have my hub puller
ready when I have a blower motor to change.

__________________
Not Stupid, Just slow

The Dangling Wrangler

Have to agree with that. Same with the brass drift. The center of the hubs ,don't withstand a lot of abuse. I know, I've tore a few up in my day.

hvaclover

Interesting call two summers back. I pulled the cond fan motor and the two bladed fan has a groove ground into the hub. I brought my hub puller out but the customer had never seen one and insisted I use one of his three finger pullers. I would not use it. So he grabbed the motor and attached his puller.
The fingers would not grab the groove and slipped off.
I took the motor back from him and had the blade off in three minutes and that was with really wrenching on the spindle.

__________________
Not Stupid, Just slow

The Dangling Wrangler

Hey, it takes all kinds, I guess. He's lucky it didn't warp the hub.
The right tool, for the right job.

DuMass

Well… I know from reading other posts that I’m not supposed to have direct correspondence or make eye contact with the HVAC soup nazi but…

I’ve seen some blower wheels and fan blades with aluminum hubs seized on a steel shaft that a 4-bolt puller will just rip right off of while leaving deep gouge marks in the surface of the hub.
Other than completely destroying or replacing the entire blower, motor/shaft assembly, the heat/shock method is sometimes your only viable alternative.
I can normally use this method and have a blower wheel off and intact while somone else would still tightening the bolts on a puller.
You asked what methods were used and this is one of them.
I may only have been doing ACR for 12 years, but I’ve been doing commercial equipment service much longer than that, so I guess what I’m saying is that I’m not coming fresh off the farm here.

The Dangling Wrangler

Don't get so defensive. Nobody's said you're a greenhorn. Whatever floats your boat. Sometimes it's the only alternative, to replace motor, shaft, and/or wheel. What's your time worth?
Yes, I've wasted hours trying to save customers money. I don't do that anymore.

hvaclover

I think you are missing the point, I am talking about only residential 1/2" shaft pullers.


Oh, no body said you couldn't make eye contact. But don't you think you'd get eye strain staring at the screen? "Cause I don't think my avatar is gonna blink.

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Not Stupid, Just slow

jvegas

I agree time is money